Coldwater Fisheries and Aquaculture in India

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SOUVENIR National Seminar on “Strategies, innovations and sustainable management for enhancing coldwater fisheries and aquaculture” 22-24 September, 2017 ICAR-DCFR, Bhimtal, Nainital, Uttarakhand Organized by: ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal-263136 Nainital, Uttarakhand. In collaboration with: Coldwater Fisheries Society of India, Bhimtal, Nainital, Uttarakhand & Zoological Society of India, Bodhgaya, Bihar Published by: Dr. A. K. Singh, Director, ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal and President, Coldwater Fisheries Society of India, Bhimtal Citation: Singh, A. K., Sarma, D., Akhtar. M. S. and Baruah, D. 2017: Souvenir – National Seminar on ‘Strategies, innovations and sustainable management for enhancing coldwater fisheries and aquaculture’. ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India. Pp: 1-88 Year of publication: 2017 © Copy right: 2017 ICAR-DCFR All rights reserved. Any part of this souvenir may be reproduced only for scientific and academic purposes with prior permission and due acknowledgement to ICAR- DCFR, Bhimtal. Cover design: M. S. Akhtar & D. Sarma

Deisgn & printed at: M/s Royal Offset Printers, A-89/1, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi-110028 # 9811622258 –: ii :–

National Seminar on ‘Strategies, innovations and sustainable management for enhancing coldwater fisheries and aquaculture’

National Advisory Committee Chief Patron Dr. T. Mohapatra, Secretary, DARE, Govt. of India and Director General, ICAR, New Delhi Patron Dr. J. K. Jena, DDG (Fisheries Science), ICAR, New Delhi

National Advisory Committee Members: Dr. M.V.Gupta, Food Laureate, FAO Dr. (Mrs.) B. Meenakumari, Chairman, National Biodiversity Board Prof. P. N. Pandey, President, ZSI Prof. B. N. Pandey, Working President, ZSI Dr. S.D.Tripathi, Former Director & Vice Chancellor, ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai Dr. M. Sinha, Adivsor, Government of Tripura & Former Director, CIFRI Dr. Dilip Kumar, Former Director & Vice Chancellor, ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai Dr. K. K. Vass, Former Director, ICAR-CIFRI & DCFR Prof. W. Vishwanath, Head, Department of Life Science, Manipur University Prof. Kamal Jaiswal, Department of Applied Animal Sciences, BBAU Dr. Sudhir Raizada, ADG (Inland Fisheries), ICAR, New Delhi Dr. Pravin Putra, ADG (Marine Fisheries), ICAR, New Delhi Dr. Gopal Krishna, Director & Vice Chancellor, ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai Dr. A. Gopalakrishnan, Director, ICAR-CMFRI, Kochi Dr. C. N. Ravishankar, Director, ICAR-CIFT, Kochi Dr. K. K. Lai, Director, ICAR-NBFGR, Lucknow Dr. B. K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore Dr. J. K. Sundaray, Director (Acting), ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneshwar Mr. R.N. Pandita, Director, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of J&K Mr. Gurcharan Singh, Director, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of H.P. Mr. G.B. Oli, Director, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Uttarakhand Mr. S.K. Das, Director, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Assam Mr. I.P. Chetri, Director, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Sikkim Mr. J. Taba, Director, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of A.P. Mr. Kevisa Kense, Director, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Nagaland Mr. S.P. Singh, Director, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Mizoram Mr. Ram Singh, Director, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Meghalaya

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National Organizing Committee Convener Dr. A. K. Singh, Director, ICAR-DCFR, Bhimtal Organizing Secretary Dr. Debajit Sarma, Principal Scientist, ICAR-DCFR Joint Organizing Secretaries Dr. N. N. Pandey, Principal Scientist, ICAR-DCFR Dr. R. S. Patiyal, Senior Scientist, ICAR-DCFR Dr. D. Baruah, Senior Scientist, ICAR-DCFR Executive Members Dr. Amit Pande, National Fellow, ICAR-DCFR Dr. Prem Kumar, Principal Scientist, ICAR-DCFR Dr. S. G. S.Zaidi, Senior Scientist, ICAR-DCFR Dr. Suresh Chandra, Senior Scientist, ICAR-DCFR Shri S.K. Malik, Scientist, ICAR-DCFR Dr. S. Ali, Scientist, ICAR-DCFR

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Message I am happy to know that the ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal in collaboration with Coldwater Fisheries Society of India, Bhimtal and Zoological Society of India, Bodhgaya is organizing a National Seminar on ‘Strategies, innovations and sustainable management for enhancing coldwater fisheries and aquaculture’ during 22-24 September, 2017. Under the food and nutritional security prospects of India, the fisheries sector including coldwater fisheries has substantial contribution in securing food and nutrition to ever growing population of the country. Although the share of coldwater fish production in the total fish production basket of the country is low, but it has a greater role in the economies of the hill states by providing an array of livelihood opportunities. Theme of the seminar is contemporary and deserves attention by the scientific community in a changing scenario of climate regime, dwindling natural resources and fast growing human population particularly in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem. It is hoped that the deliberations and recommendations from the seminar will generate new vistas and action plans for sustainable development of coldwater fisheries and aquaculture in Indian hill states. I wish the seminar a grand success.

(T. Mohapatra)

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Message Coldwater fishery resources have immense potential in generating income in rural areas and providing food security to the economically underprivileged population of Indian upland regions through aquaculture practices, ornamental fisheries and sports fishery based eco-tourism. However, issues like climate change, loss of biodiversity and over-exploitation of aquatic resources are challenges before the coldwater fishery sector. It is therefore envisaged that sustainable management of the coldwater fisheries resources could be achieved by innovative production technologies, utilization of under exploited water resources, thrust on climate resilient strategies; fish based eco-tourism, post-harvest technology, infrastructure development, information and communication services and governance. It is indeed a great pleasure to know that the ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal in collaboration with Coldwater Fisheries Society of India, Bhimtal and Zoological Society of India, Bodhgaya is organizing a National Seminar on ‘Strategies, innovations and sustainable management for enhancing coldwater fisheries and aquaculture’ during 22-24 September, 2017. I hope this seminar will provide an excellent platform to the researchers to review the present status and to focus on some of the relevant issues to provide future road map to frame strategies to enhance productivity of coldwater fisheries in India. I extend my best wishes for the success of the seminar.

(J. K. Jena)

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Foreword The ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal, a premier research institute of Indian Council of Agricultural Research for the coldwater fisheries and aquaculture in the country has undertaken comprehensive initiatives towards scientific management of fishery resources, safeguard of coldwater habitats and promotion of coldwater aquaculture for overall development of coldwater fisheries sector in the country. Meticulous efforts of the ICAR-DCFR includes explorations of important endemic/local species for regularly updating fish biodiversity (over 258 species), habitat, ecology, biology, reproductive physiology and molecular characterization of commercially important 23 species. Using Geographic Information System (GIS), assessment and mapping of coldwater resources was carried out in different Himalayan states including high altitudes and developed aquaculture suitable maps for decision support and planning. The Directorate has standardized and developed protocols for successful breeding, rearing and seed production of several new candidate species such as mahseer, snow trout, minor carps for aquaculture. Production of carp in polyculture of was raised from 0.3 kg/m2 to 0.7 kg/m2 using innovative technologies, species composition/combination and improved strains of common carp. Further average production of rainbow trout was also elevated beyond the average of 400 kg/raceway of 45m2 by way of adopting scientific management techniques and improvised feed. Rendered technical support to different trout farming states for promotion of trout culture which got elevated from 147 tons during 2004 to 844 tons (over six fold) during 2016 disseminating scientific interventions. Worked for enhancement of natural fish stocks through ranching; development of aquaculture in access restricted places. Overtures like open water cage culture and customized feeds and feeding schedules for candidate species have also been developed. Developed knowledgebase on various diseases for health management in aquaculture; exhaustive nutrient profiling of food fishes; technological inputs for water management; environmental impact assessment; Climate resilient modeling; fish based ecotourism. For prioritised indigenous candidate species of aquaculture, attempts are being made to decode the genes for growth and maturity in captivity. Developed human resource through trainings on-farm demonstrations, education, consultancies, partnership through outreach activities and aquaculture expansion through technological interventions. However, issues like climate change, loss of biodiversity and over-exploitation of aquatic resources are challenges before the coldwater fishery sector. The available technologies need to be further disseminated to various stakeholders particularly for the benefit of the farmers of hilly region. In this backdrop, a National Seminar on “Strategies, innovations and sustainable management for enhancing coldwater fisheries and aquaculture is being organized by the ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal in collaboration with Coldwater Fisheries Society of India, Bhimtal and Zoological Society of India, Bodhgaya during 22-24

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September, 2017. I sincerely wish and firmly believe that the proposed event would provide a suitable platform for the researchers, academicians, policy makers, entrepreneurs and farmers to deliberate on all relevant issue of coldwater fisheries and aquaculture and come out with suitable strategies and action plans for taking the coldwater fisheries sector to newer heights. On behalf of ICAR-DCFR, CFSI and ZSI, I extend a warm, hearty welcome to all the participants of the seminar. I convey my sincere thanks and gratitude to Dr. T. Mohapatra, Secretary, DARE and Director General, ICAR, New Delhi and Chief Patron of the seminar; Dr. J. K. Jena, DDG (Fisheries Sciences), ICAR, New Delhi and Patron of the seminar; National Advisory Committee; Co-conveners, Organizing Secretaries; Organizing Committees for their valuable guidance, efforts and support in organizing the seminar. The financial support by different institutions and organizations is also gratefully acknowledged.

A. K. Singh Director, ICAR-DCFR & Convener

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Contents S.N. 1.

Title

Sustainable Development of Coldwater Fisheries and Aquaculture in India

Page No. 1-10

2. Livelihoods through Coldwater Fisheries and Development Strategies

11-20

3.

Genetic Diversity: Key for Sustainable Coldwater Fisheries

21-23

4. Status of coldwater fish diversity in India and strategies for conservation

24-30

5.

Fish Health Management in Freshwater Cage Culture

31-36

6.

Value Addition Options for Deccan Mahseer (Tor khudree) 37-43 and Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

7.

Current Scenario of Freshwater Pearl Culture Technology in India

44-48

8.

Upland Fisheries and Aquaculture – Issues and Desired Interventions

49-53

9.

Coldwater Fisheries and Aquaculture in India

54-59

10.

Promotion of Coldwater Fisheries with Applied Biotechnology Research in India

60-61

11.

Potential and Innovative Strategies for the Development of Coldwater Aquaculture in India

62-69

12.

Rainbow trout farming in India: Status and prospects

70-74

13.

Scope and Potentiality for Development of Coldwater Fisheries in Assam

75-77

14.

Indigenous Coldwater Fishes of India Have the Best Nutrient Composition for Meeting Human Nutritional Requirements

78-81

15.

An Overview on Pathogen Interactions in Fish

82-86

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National Seminar on “Strategies, Innovations and Sustainable Management for Enhancing Coldwater Fisheries and Aquaculture”

Souvenir

Sustainable Development of Coldwater Fisheries and Aquaculture in India A.K. Singh1 and J. K. Jena2 Director, ICAR- Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research Anusandhan Bhawan, Industrial Area, Bhimtal-263136 (Nainital), Uttarakhand 2 Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science), Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi-1100012 1

1. Introduction The Himalayan and peninsular regions of India comprised diverse coldwater resources in terms of upland rivers, fast flowing streams, high, mid and low altitude natural lakes and reservoirs. The Indian Himalayan region covers an area of about 595,000 km2 from West to East between Nanga Parbat (8126m) to Namcha Barwa (7756m). There are 19 major rivers in the Himalayas of which Indus and Brahmaputra are the longest and each has a mountain catchment of about 1,60,000 km2. Of the remaining 17 rivers, five belong to the Indus system of which the Beas and Sutluj have a total catchment of 80,000 km2. Nine rivers namely, Ganga, Yamuna, Ram-Ganga, Kali-Sarda, Karnali, Rapti, Gandak, Bhagmati and Kosi have a catchment area of about 1,50,000 km2 and belong to the Ganga system while Brahmaputra has a catchment area of about 1,10,000 km2. Most of these rivers flow in deep valleys before they enter the plains. Besides these river systems, this region is rich in other water resources that are present in the form of rivulets, streams, lakes, ponds, tanks and reservoirs. The unique coldwater resources are known to harbour diverse group of fishes belonging to 258 species, 76 genera and 21 families, constituting approximately 30% of the total freshwater fish fauna of the country. Out of these, 203 species have been recorded from the Himalayas while 91 from Deccan plateau. Among the recorded species, schizothoracids and mahseer support sizable capture and sport fishery in rivers and lakes. Keeping in mind the diverse natural resource-base and wide climatic range, these huge inhabitants of endemic,

indigenous and exotic coldwater fish species form an enormous prospective for developing upland farming practices, game and ornamental fisheries of larger extent. These can provide an excellent opportunities for augmenting livelihood security for the upland people residing in the Himalayan terrain, where opportunities to earn revenue is difficult and hard to adopt the farming practices.

2. Resources and sustainable development Resource assessment in the hilly regions is a herculean task due to its unique topographical features and inaccessibility. However, the mapping of coldwater fishery resources using a well designed information system such as geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing has been playing an important role in sustainable development and management of coldwater fisheries. The base map of the River networks, lakes and reservoirs of the Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim state have been digitized using GIS tools. The information so far generated is helpful for understanding of distribution of species, habitat requirement and genetic diversity which is helping in devising methods of conservation and management planning. The developed information system has been immensely helping the coldwater fisheries sector for comprehensive planning on regional basis. Enhancement of capture production of commercially indigenous species such as golden mahseer and snow trout by regular ranching programmes and seed ranching in river streams/reservoirs/lakes

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will also be helpful for increasing revenue/farmers subsistence from the available natural resources and promotion of fish based ecotourism in the form of sport fishery/fish watches. The important fishery resources which are of the Himalayan region are followings which are receiving attention for their sustainable management:

3. Mahseer fishery and seed production The indigenous mahseers (Tor spp.) of the carp family are considered as the best sport fish and also the most sought-after food fish. In the Himalayas due to human-induced deterioration of the environment and overfishing, mahseer stocks have sharply declined. To rehabilitate them, induced spawning and artificial propagation of Himalayan as well as chocolate mahseer have been developed. A flow through Mahseer Hatchery has been designed for the mass seed production of these fish species. The system is simple and farmers friendly for breeding, egg incubation and larval rearing with continuous water flow. Artificial mass seed production of this species would be helpful for the rehabilitation of this species through ranching in the uplands water bodies and also for enhancement of aquaculture production. Technology has been transferred to the different State Governments such as Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and private agencies. Seed production and its ranching in natural waters is the regular practice of Institute. Taking into consideration the importance of mahseer fishery resources of India, ICAR-DCFR has developed a comprehensive mahseer fishery management and perspective planning to manage and propagate it. A knowledgebase for management of mahseer fishery resources and their sustainable utilization has been developed. Since mahseer also possesses high significance in recreational fishery in India so the state wise details on the importance of the mighty mahseer as a game fish in the Indian rivers, streams and lakes through the perspectives of active anglers and vision of stakeholders and researchers has also been developed. Documentation of diversified aquatic resources and generating information on fish based recreational facilities in Himalayan states is indispensible for development of ecologically sustainable coldwater

fisheries in the country. Captive maturation in mahseer has been studied elucidating the effect of temperature and feed supplement. Plasma levels of different reproductive hormones like 17, β-estradiol, 17α-20-βDiOH-progesterone, vitellogenin levels as well as anti-oxidative enzymes, cortisol and immunological indices in golden mahseer under different temperature regimes were estimated. Characterization of cyp19b (complete cds) and cyp19a have been completed. Kisspeptin-1 and kisspeptin-1 receptor and their expression have characterized for manipulation. Formulated broodstock feed of mahseer using maturation inducing supplements such as Tryptophan, Albumin, Vitamin E, and Pro-hormone supplement that favors natural maturation in captivity. Study was conducted for devising a feeding regimen based on return of appetite in golden mahseer (Tor putitora) larvae/juvenile. Studies have been carried out on histo-morphological changes in digestive tract at different developmental stages. In this regard, studied postprandial dynamicity of digestive system, return of appetite based on identified histological and enzymological marker and ontogeny of sensory organs of golden mahseer. Genetic variability of different populations of both the species was studied using Cyto b, ATPase 6/8 and COI mitochondrial genes.

3.1 Sport fishing and eco-tourism Angling or sports fishing is one of the most fascinating outdoor physical activities by the people of the country since time immemorial both for consumption and also as sports. Of late, it has become a form of eco-tourism promoting sustainable management of resource and consequently contributing to environmental conservation. Sport fishing is one of the leading adventure tourism activities across the world and the anglers travel to far distant places in order to satisfy their taste in angling anywhere and everywhere conferred with resources. Himalayan rivers and streams of India particularly of Northeast India are home for mahseer fishes with excellent food and sports value. The people of the NE region residing near the bank of rivers and streams would be much benefited if the mahseer fish in connecting rivers is promoted.

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Recreational fishing, a popular leisure activity, also called sport fishing, is fishing for pleasure or competition, in natural and man-made water bodies. Sport fishing is one of the most sought after adventure tourism activities and has a booming international business opportunity. The most common form of recreational fishing is done with a rod, reel, line, hooks and any one of a wide range of baits. The sport fishing tourism is now developing in India, accounting for 2.7 % growth in tourism sector providing 31 million jobs in India. Today foreign tourist arrival is growing at an average of 4.5 % contributing foreign exchange earnings to the tune of INR 1,35,193 crore in 2015 (Annual Report, Ministry of Tourism, 2015). There are three common methods for capturing mahseer: fly fishing, spoon fishing and bait fishing. ICAR-DCFR has been taking positive steps in this direction to promote sport fishing which could serve a alternate livelihood options for the people of the sector.

3.2. Mahseer watching: A concept of ICAR-DCFR Fish may be beneficial to human health not just by eating them, but watching them. Fish watching has multiple positive physiological benefits like greater drops in blood pressure, stable heart rates, better moods and relaxation etc as per reports from several researchers. Many of the upland lakes, religious and protected tanks, river streams and pools are examples of fish watching spots which not only attracts tourists but also indirectly facilitates in-situ conservation of the some of the endangered fishes like the mahseer. Such kinds of fish watching spots are served in many tourist sites of the country. Mahseer (Tor tor and T. putitora) can be best watched in the Kumaon lakes viz., Nainital,

Bhimtal, Naukuchiatal and Sattal and tanks such as Nal Damayanti. Similarly, the Tawang and Upper Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh are recorded with numerous numbers of lakes which can give a multidimensional importance as angling, scenic beauty, bird watching and hill trekking etc. More number of lakes and tanks with an eco-tourism importance in Northeast region are Mehao lake (1640 m asl) and Sally lake (435 m asl) in Lower Dibang Valley district, Lake Mechuka (1829 m) in West Siang and Lake Geker Sinyi/Ganga Lake (750 m asl) in Papumpare district of Arunachal Pradesh, Ward’s lake (1496 m asl) at Shillong, Dighali pukhuri (56 m asl) at Guwahati, Cole park and Padum pukhuri at (48 m asl) at Tezpur, Joysagar and Gaurisagar tanks (95 m asl) at Sibsagar, Jarain pitcher plant lake and Thadlaskein Lake near Jowai (1380 m asl). Many such lakes and tanks are scattered and may be located near the roadside and others at some trekking distance. These types of water bodies offers excellent sites for development of sport fisheries and fish watching spots together with other recreational facilities like boating, children’s park, food courts etc. Mahseer eco-park concept is a new dimension to the eco-tourism where nature lovers can get to see world famous game fish in a particular place similar to the concept of bird watching, tiger watching etc. Mahseer has been recognized as ‘State Fish’ in 7 states of India and is having all the qualities to become a ‘National Freshwater Fish’ because of its magnificent colour, fighting skills and sizes (WWF Report, 2013). ICAR-DCFR has been promoting this concept of mahseer watching and developed several eco-park and sanctuaries in Uttarakhand

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Mahseer eco-park at Sariyatal


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(Sariyatal; Lake view Resort, Kherna), in Meghalaya (Nongmahir), Arunachal Pradseh (Mehao lake) etc.

3.3. Seed production and rehabilitation of mahseer Golden mahseer (Tor putitora), the king of game fish is considered endangered despite its excellent quality in terms of sports and food value. Mahseer which was abundant earlier in most of the Himalayan stream and rivers are declining in recent times due to various natural and anthropogenic factors. Therefore, it is an urgent need to conserve the germ plasm of the fish (in-situ & ex-situ) and increase the population in the natural eco-system. In this Direction ICAR-DCFR has taken several bold steps towards increase in seed production of this species followed by ranching in the natural habitats for its rehabilitation. The seed production of golden mahseer is a regular activity of this Directorate and the hatchery produced seed has been successfully transported to various parts of the country. Chocolate mahseer (Neolissochilus hexagonolepis)

which is another important mahseer has been reared successfully in captivity and its captive breeding protocol has been standardized at this Directorate. The hatchery technology has been now demonstrated in various states viz. Maeghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Assam for production of seed of chocolate mahseer for improving the status of aquaculture and fisheries. It is believed that activities and the research program taken up by DCFR will certainly help to bring mahseer in main stream of fisheries and aquaculture by 2020.

Year

Distributed to:

2007-08

Supplied to Dept. of Fisheries, Dist. GTA Darjeeling, West Bengal; Released in Bhimtal lake

2008-09

Supplied to Dept. of Fisheries, Dist. GTA Darjeeling, West Bengal; Supplied to Dept. of Fisheries, Govt. of Sikkim; Released in Kherna Mahseer Reserve, Uttarakahnd

2009-10

Supplied to Dept. of Fisheries, Dehradun, Govt. of Uttarakahnd; Supplied to MP Fish Federation, Bhopal; Released in Bhimtal lake for rehabilitation.

2010-11

Supplied to Dept. of Fisheries, Govt. of Sikkim; Supplied to ICAR-NER, Barapani; Stocked in Bhimtal lake for rehabilitation.

2011-12

Stocked in Mehao lake, Arunachal Pradesh; Supplied to MP Fish Federation, Bhopal; Supplied to College of Fisheries, Pantanagr, Uttarakhand; Supplied to Sattal Estate Association, Sattal, Nainital, Uttarakhand; Rearing in cages and ponds of DCFR

2012-13

Supplied to Dept. of Fisheries, Govt. of Sikkim; Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh, Supplied to MP Fish Federation, Bhopal; Ranched in Bhimtal lake; Released in Dighali puhkuri tank, Guwahati, Assam; Rearing in cages and ponds of DCFR

2013-14

Supplied to College of Fisheries, Pantanagr, Uttarakhand; Ranching at Bhimtal lake and Naukuchiatal lake; Rearing in cages and ponds of DCFR

2014-15

Supplied to MP Fish Federation, Bhopal and Dept. of Fisheries, Dist. GTA Darjeeling, West Bengal; Stocked at Nonmahir lake, Meghalaya; Ranched at Nainital lake; Released at Sariyatal lake and Kosi river, Ramnagar.

2015-16

Supplied to MP Fisheries Federation, Bhopal, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Uttarakhand, Rearing in pond and cages, Ranching in Bhimtal Lake

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Mahseer hatchery activities at ICAR-DCFR, Bhimtal

4. Snow trout, Schizothorax richardsonii (Gray) Snow trout is an important indigenous cold water fish species, endemic to the Himalayas and found in streams and lakes which receive snow melt water from the hills. Identified and documented five (5) species of Schizothoracids based on morphological characteristics, meristic counts and by using tools of truss morphometry. The five species recorded are Schizothorax richardsonii, Schizothorax labiatus, Schizothorax esosinus, Schizothorax progastus and Schizopyge niger. Technology for artificial fecundation of pond raised brooders and rearing of young ones in controlled condition has been developed at DCFR. Previously seed was procured from the natural resources.

This technique enables the production of pure and healthy seed in captive condition. This seed can be used for augmentation of natural stock and aquaculture of this species. In order to study on decoding the constraints in growth, maturation and captive management of snow trout, the molecular characterization of target gene markers related to digestion and feed intake have been initiated. Partial cDNA sequences of specific digestive enzymes and feed intake regulating peptide were amplified, cloned and sequenced. Experimentation with respect to nutritional status, dietary protein and feeding strategy were successfully carried out and growth response and feed utilization have been estimated. Biochemical and histological investigations of

Culture and breeding of rainbow trout

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factors concerning digestion and nutrient uptake are underway. In order to understand the role of intestinal microbiota in feed digestion and nutrient uptake, high throughput profiles of the gut bacterial community composition and structure has been comparatively studied. Amplification, cloning and sequencing of nine target genes have been completed. Blood plasma and tissue sampling was carried out at three different time points to elucidate the effect of nutritional status on physio-metabolic responses and well being of snow trout. Various stress parameters, well being parameters, plasma metabolites, fatty acid profile and histological indices have also been assessed in response to different nutritional status of snow trout. In other experimental trial with graded level of dietary protein has been completed and samples of tissue and plasma were preserved for metabolic enzyme and target gene analysis as well as histological studies. Molecular characterisation of five-muscle growth related transcripts (myoD, myogenin, mst, myf 5, myf6) are completed. To generate fulllength sequence using 3’ & 5’ RACE technique probes are designed and synthesised. Amino acid analysis profiling of whole body of snow trout under starvation and re-feeding experiment was completed. An experiment was also conducted elucidate the effect of graded level of protein in the diet of Schizothorax richardsonii in which highest growth response was recorded in diet fed 45 and 50 % protein diet.

5. Stock enhancement in natural water bodies Indigenous Snow trout, mahseer and some minor cyprinids are commonly available in most of the river streams. However, catches per unit effort per man has drastically declined in recent years adversely affecting the subsistence in the mountain region. Therefore, ranching programmes especially for snow trout, mahseer and other local cyprinids will be helpful in view of farmers income and livelihood support. In this direction, efforts to install nursery cages in reservoirs and lakes would be advantageous for raising fingerlings for stocking purposes. ICAR-DCFR has already standardized the practice of raising fingerlings in cages for stocking purposes.

To conserve the priceless gene pool as well as to augment the fish production, the growth of location, situation and need specific technologies require immediate attention. ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research (DCFR), Bhimtal, the only premier research institute of the country for implementing coldwater fisheries research and developmental program, has contributed significantly in sustainable development of open water fisheries, aquaculture, extension & training, consultancy services and human resources development. Various research program related to breeding and culture techniques of commercially important coldwater fishes and their conservation has been implemented successfully following the development of breeding and seed production protocol. The technologies have been further disseminated to various stake holders particularly for the benefit of the farmers of hilly region.

6. Coldwater aquaculture potential There is immense scope for the development of aquaculture to provide a source of employment to the people of upland region. Many suitable sites are available in different parts of the hill states, which could be utilized for fish production. The suitable sites are lying along the banks of the rivers, rivulets, streams and streamlets. Depending upon the micro-climatic conditions of the region, such suitable patches of water bodies should be identified throughout the region and be brought under aquaculture practices. Today, the available technologies allow the culture of a number of exotic and indigenous coldwater fish species in Indian Himalaya. The most common species for coldwater aquaculture are rainbow trout, common carp, Chinese carp, minor carp along with mahseer and other endemic fish species.

6.1. Rainbow trout farming Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) farming has got tremendous scope in the Himalayan and some peninsular regions, where sufficient quantity of quality water is available. Trout culture needs high input/investment in the form of pond construction, procurement of seed, feed and maintenance of fish health. So, its expansion has limitations due to these barriers coupled with limited markets. Over

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the years, rainbow trout farming in the states of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh has become an enterprise. The farming of rainbow trout on commercial scale has been made possible in the hill states of the country. The farming system demonstrated in the state owned farms have generated tremendous enthusiasm among the local unemployed youth to take up farming of trout as a means of employment. In the state of Sikkim more than 300 private trout growers have come up and trout production has gone to the higher magnitude with the active guidance of this Directorate in the recent years. DCFR, Bhimtal has also done commendable work in trout culture and hatchery development at Shergaon and Nuranang trout farm of Arunachal Pradesh and more than 1 lakh of trout eyed ova are being produced in the hatchery regularly. At present, around 25 trout hatcheries established under government sector are engaged in breeding and rearing of rainbow and brown trout in different region. Being a low volume high value commodity, the trout has good potential for domestic consumptions as well as foreign export. Presently the bulk of trout production is contributed by the Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, while the other hill states like Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh have also initiated trout farming. In order to popularize trout farming in hill states, the Directorate has made concerted efforts towards the development of location specific trout farming practices in collaboration with State Fisheries Departments in hill states. ICAR-DCFR has imparted training to the

stakeholders on various aspects of trout farming and breeding which included brood stock maintenance, breeding, nutrition and health management. Consequently, trout farming technology has been adopted in the private sector and today over 249 private trout raceways exist in Sikkim while over 350 farmers are involved in trout farming in Himachal state. However, there is further ample scope of enhancement of trout production in these states through participatory approach. The present trout production of the country is around 842 tons, which may increase multifold during the coming decade through the strategies deliberated. Rainbow trout farming is promising source of food as well a livelihood in hill states including Ladakh region which is the world’s highest cold desert is one of the most difficult terrain on earth with hostile climatic conditions as it has some promising areas for aquaculture around the rivers Sindhu or Indus, Suru, Dras, Shingo, Stod (Doda) Lungnak or Tsarap Lingti and Zanskar. These streams and rivers are snow fed, with highly oxygenated water forming ideal source of water for rainbow trout culture. For popularization of trout culture in such high altitude areas, ICAR-DCFR established over a dozen of trout raceways. However, trout seed production, culture technology, feed and health management in cold deserts is yet a challenge.

6.2. Chinese carp farming The Chinese carp farming in mid-hills is a popular practice among the farmers for the nutritional security as well for income generation. Due to simpler farming techniques, low input requirements

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of the farming practices, therefore setting up of hatcheries, nursery rearing and seed transportation facilities would provide significant employment opportunities and DCFR is putting sincere efforts in these areas.

6.3 Improved strains of common carp As the slow growth rate and unwanted reproduction have been identified as the potential constraints on yield of common carp in hill aquaculture, DCFR, Bhimtal has imported two improved Hungarian strains of common carp (Ropsha scaly & Felsosomogy mirror carp) at its field centre, Champawat, Uttarakhand to ascertain and evaluate the traits. The growth performance of these Hungarian strains has been evaluated in different govt. farms of Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Meghalaya achieving higher growth than existing Bangkok strain of common carp. The breeding of these two improved strains has been done successfully at Champawat centre and the seeds have been to the selected farmers to assess its culture and growth potential on experimental field trial basis. and possibilities of integration of available resources, the culture of Chinese carps in small sized ponds (0.01, 0.03 ha) is becoming popular in the midaltitudinal Himalayan region. The composition of cultured species varies from monoculture of common carp to polyculture of grass, silver and common carp. The carp culture in hills has been proven more profitable by integration of fish culture with dairy, horticulture, agriculture and paddy. Grass carp emerged as a popular species for the low-cost hill aquaculture with higher realization of profit margins. DCFR, Bhimtal has taken pioneer steps in introducing and popularizing this package of practice in the mid hill region of IHR to increase the income of the marginal farmers. The technology has been demonstrated in farmer’s ponds of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and hilly district of Assam The technology has also been successfully transferred to the farmers in the Central Himalayan regions of the country. Quality fish seed is a major bottleneck in expansion

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Hungarian scale carp

Hungarian mirror carp


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6.4. Species diversification in coldwater aquaculture Diversification of species is one of the strategies for sustainable development of aquaculture to boost the rural economy in upland region in coming days. Since, number of species cultured in coldwater sector is limited, so there is a need bring more number of fishes in aquaculture in order to increase the fish production in IHR. To meet the challenges, the Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal has identified few promising species such as chocolate mahseer (Neolissocheilus hexagonolepis), Labeo dero, L. dyocheilus, Osteobrama belangeri, Labeo pungusia and Bangana devdevi which could be cultured along with Chinese carps in midHimalayan region. The breeding and seed rearing of two of these species have been standardized and successful pilot scale experiment has been carried out in this direction. It is expected that these species will play an important role in 2020 to augment the coldwater fish production of the country.

Labeo pungusis

DCFR, ornamental farming in the hill states can be promoted creating a scope of farmers income. It is to mention that local/endemic ornamental species such as barils, loaches and botia etc have got high promises.

6.6. Mitigation of post-harvest loss and value addition Lack of proper marketing facility is the biggest hindrance in its expansion. Sale of farmed trout in fresh condition is a big problem faced in the production centres. Most of the trout farms in the state are located in interior and remote areas, which have limited access to the domestic markets. Further, being a valuable commodity there is complete dearth of local markets. In this situation, there is need for establishment of Post-Harvest and Value addition units either to preserve the fish for a longer duration or to make value-added products, so as to attract a wider market within the country and also for creating scope of exports. Though, the techniques for marine and fresh water fish production have already been developed and practiced in the country, which need to be extended to the coldwater sector too. Establishment of cold chains, freezing plants, dressing, degutting, filleting, packaging, transportation and distribution units are some of the potential areas for entrepreneurships. Further preparation of value added products like patties, prickles, etc from the trout and other coldwater fishes would be another profit making venture. Development of a series of trout and carp fish production units and a viable collaboration between producers and entrepreneurships would lead to establishment of Export Oriented Units in these remote localities.

7. Issues for hill fisheries management Bangana devdevi

6.5. Entrepreneurship with ornamental fishes Ornamental fish culture is still dormant in coldwater sector where such culture practice has got tremendous scope. Through the developed technologies and extension services of ICAR-

The aquatic resources in hills are quite valuable for the development of fishery both for food, sport, recreation and employment but scientific management of these resources is necessary to achieve the objectives. In order to manage these ecosystems, so that they can contribute to fishery development in remote hilly regions on a sustainable basis, the following issues need attention on priority basis.

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yy Resource mapping of the fishery resources in mountain/hill region for the integrated development of the coldwater sector. yy In order to develop the riverine and lacustrine fisheries it is necessary to go for stockenhancement programme through ranching. yy A legal framework should be formulated to stop all types of destructive fishing method. yy The breeding grounds of the fish need special protection by declaring them as ‘No-fishing Zone’ or ‘Protected Area’. yy A balanced strategy for lakes, for tourism and fishery development is required. yy Development of sport/recreational fishery for tourism and employment generation. yy Education, training and extension support to the hill communities for resource conservation and utilization. yy Promotion of mountain-specific formulation and legislation.

policy

yy Promoting sustainable use of mountain natural resources and conservation of biological diversity and mountain ecosystems.

8. Strategies for further development of fisheries in hill states At present attention should be directed towards the standardization of technologies for various fish species suitable to hilly cold areas of the region depending on investment potentials. This should also be based on species-based systems as a high biodiversity of fish species present in this part of the country. The following points should be considered in order to improve breeding and culture of fish in the hills: yy Imparting training to farmers and entrepreneurs at different levels along with better co-ordination between extension functionaries. yy Development of suitable and specific aquaculture system for micro climatic conditions of the mid and high altitude areas.

yy Regular monitoring of reproductive biology of economically important fish species so as to suggest remedial measures for depleting population. yy Conservation and rational exploitation of resources, which are the backbone of fish and fisheries in the region particularly at the high altitude areas. yy Introduction of research programmes aiming at intensification and diversification of freshwater aquaculture in tune with the geomorphological feature of the region. yy Extensive conservation and bio monitoring of all coldwater resources in time and space to assess threat perspectives in relation to biodiversity. yy It is important to explore new candidate fish species for coldwater aquaculture.

9. Future projection and way forward There is a immense scope and prospective in improving fish production in hills by bringing natural Himalayan lakes located at different altitudes, under scientific management for fishery enhancement. This would actually reduce the gap between actual fish yield and production potentials. Through application of modern techniques, significant scope exists for promoting trout farming, which in long run, will have both domestic and export demand. There is also a great potential for sport fishery development and ecotourism in hill regions. Use of modern techniques such as molecular and biotechnological intervention, selective breeding programme for improvement of strains both of exotic and indigenous species, coldwater fish health management for the containment of diseases have now become imperative. Providing decision support system using GIS and remote sensing would be helpful not only for resource assessment but also for aquaculture development in the hills. Ornamental fish culture for small-scale enterprises in the hills can provide an alternative source of employment. The upland regions are fragile in nature therefore it has to be conserved and must be used on a sustainable basis.

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Livelihoods through Coldwater Fisheries and Development Strategies K. K.Vass Ex-Director, ICAR-DCFR, Bhimtal and ICAR-CIFRI Barrackpore, Kolkatta Presently: NAAS, New Delhi.

ntroduction The major States holding the coldwater fishery resources along the North-western and Northeastern Himalayas are Jammu & Kashmir , Himachal Pradesh , Uttrakhand , Arunachal Pradesh , Sikkim , Nagaland, Meghalaya and while among the southern upland the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala too have such resources. The range of ecosystem diversity in these states are rivers , streams , natural lakes ( valley and high altitude ) , manmade reservoirs . The ecosystem variability in-terms of altitude ranging from 600 masl to > 3000 masl induces tremendous climatic variability resulting in varied fish species evolving in different temperature and oxygen regimes.

Production trends To analyze the production trends in Himalayan states the base year data of 2012 (DAHFD) has been considered. The states taken for consideration are Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh , Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Uttarkhand. All these states have mix of warmwater fishery and coldwater fishery. In terms of total fish production the data set reveal that from 200001 to 2013-2014 majority of states have registered an increase from 7020 t to 9830 t in Himachal Pradesh , from 17510 t to 199980 t in Jammu & Kashmir , from 5500 t to 7470 t in Nagaland, from 150 t to 420 t in Sikkim, from 2790 t to 3890 t in Uttrakhand. The data of 2012 indicates that Arunachal Pradesh recorded a production of 3475 tonnes , Himachal Pradesh 8561 tonnes , Jammu & Kashmir 19700 tonnes , Meghalaya 5389 tonnes , Nagaland 6840 tonnes , Sikkim 500 tonnes , Uttarakhand 3847

tonnes. Out of this production major contribution comes from major carps, minor carps, exotic carps murrels and catfishes. However, the exact contribution of coldwater species is specifically not recorded but taking the production of other freshwater fishes we find that this production for 2012 it is reported as 300 t for Arunachal Pradesh, 205 t for Himachal Pradesh, 6779 t for Jammu & Kashmir. 559 t for Meghalaya , 120 t for Sikkim, 145 for Nagaland, nil for Utarkhand, Out of this trout production is reported at 275 t in J&K , 250 t in H.P., 105 t in Sikkim and 55 t in Uttrakhand. Therefore, production datasets specifically for coldwater species need to be recorded on a regular basis to formulate enhancement strategies. The mission statement of DCFR indicates that to aim at four-fold increase in production by 2050 but we need to be clear about increasing the production of Himalayan states or of coldwater fish species holding these species. As now need different strategies.

Ecosystem variability The diversity in entire Himalayan region induces ecosystem variability and wide spectrum of biodiversity. The ecosystem variability ranges from foothills, mid-hills and high mountains. These are blessed with varied aquatic as well as fish species, some of which tolerate mild temperatures, some live under marginally warmers temperatures during winter and while a few can with stand freezing temperature. Therefore, for aquaculture we have many choices in terms of species selection. The hills also have world’s famous sport fishes viz., trout and mahseer, there is tremendous potential of game fish in the world and our hills sates are in a

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position to exploit this area in a big way. The fish can support the nutrition security in hills and help in removing protein deficiency. It has the potential to supplement the farm income, because in hills even the agriculture productivity alone cannot economically sustain a small and marginal farmer, he will have to rely on crop

Resource base Type of water body

Length / Area

I

Himalayan and Deccan Plateau River systems / streams

10,000 km

II

yy Brackishwater lakes ( >3000 msl)

2390 ha

yy Freshwater Natural lakes (1500-2000 msl)

18150 ha

yy High mountain Kashmir lakes (>3000 msl)

400 ha

yy Valley lakes in Kashmir ( 1400-1600 msl)

3000 ha

yy Shiwalik lakes in Jammu ( < 600 msl)

100 ha

III

Central Himalayas Freshwater lakes in Kumaon

IV

Himalayan manmade lakes / reservoirs

V

Peninsular uplands Natural lakes Reservoirs

450 ha 43770 ha

85 ha

Fish diversity We have 258 fish species both indigenous and exotic ones belonging 21 families and 76 genera reported from Indian uplands which are spread over in Himalayas and the peninsular plateau. Of these 203 are found in Himalayas and 91 species are found in Deccan plateau. However, the list of some of the important species used as food fish , sport fish, and ornamental various species of snow-trout, mahseer, exotic trouts, other exotics, minor carps, and others.

Importance of fish in hills In our hills traditionally there has been no major commercial scale fishery mainly due to inadequate demand, low availability and un-organized remote

marketing. The other contributing factors have been lack of fish as item of food in the regular diet of hill communities, in some states majority of populations are vegetarians while non-vegetarians prefer meat or chicken over fish. Further, except for the State of Jammu & Kashmir, traditional fishermen communities capable of catching fish from open-waters were almost absent. It is only in the recent past when fishery development was given importance by the line departments in different hill states it became essential to settle some population of traditional fishers from well known fishery states in hill states very close to fishing sites to fish the wild waters. The fishery in hills was either purely a sustenance activity to catch fish from rivers / streams / lakes and sell the small catches in close by un-organized markets. However, the angling activity for tourists to catch some specific fishes (trout & mahseer) mainly for sport activity and did not involve any fisher communities at the ground level but remained a departmental programme. Till recent past fish farming of food fishes was not prevalent in hills at best this activity was restricted to seed production of trouts for stocking streams to sustain angling activity for tourists that too in government controlled hatcheries / farms. With advancement of fishery sector in plains of India through various schemes, technology development, funding support the fishery sector in hills is of late receiving adequate attention. These schemes have been launched both at central and state level to harness the benefit of hills fishery both in terms of livelihood support and nutritional requirement of hill communities who inhabit remote areas in our mountain states.

Supply, demand and marketing Our hill states due to geographical location and terrain have areas/towns at different altitudes that are connected by poor to fair roads that make transportation of materials especially live or iced fish difficult. The water bodies situated at different locations are usually small in area and depths cannot hold large fish stocks resulting in low local yields so fish from plains is transported that adds to the cost and also availability on daily basis is not ensured. There are situations in hills when the fish raising

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/ production units are located in remote areas due to specific ecology of fishes , the inadequate transportation from these areas to the warm-water fish raised in the plains below. consumption towns in hills compels the grower to sell his fish production locally at far less remunerative price. The low production volumes at different altitudes in hills add to the transportation cost acts as a constraint to sustained supplies. Therefore , in our hill regions even if the demand for fish consumption has grown but its supplies have largely depended upon the imports from the plains of India so people in-fact do not get to eat the coldwater fish but the

Fishery as sustenance livelihood Capture Fisheries: Majority of the coldwater fishes are caught individually by local fishermen in the rivers and streams and do not form fisheries of commercial importance. A few, however, such as the snowtrout (Schizothorax spp and Schizothoraichthys spp), large-scaled barbells (Tor spp), common carp (different phenotypes of Cyprinus carpio) and a few minor carps (Labeo dero and Labeo dyochelius) are some of the commercially important food fishes, dwelling in uplands. Truly speaking, even these species do not form fisheries of appreciable magnitude. The reasons attributed to this situation are many but most important ones being, slow growth , small size of fishes fetches low price , use of cast net main gear is basically inefficient one man unit, apart from these the terrain in uplands have inadequate transport facilities causing difficulty in transporting catches from collection site to nearby markets to get the remunerative price for the catch, which under compulsion are sold by fisherman as one or two units in nearby villages / towns. Further, over the years due to various environmental and anthropogenic activities there has been significant decline in fish catches both in size and composition in upland rivers, streams and lakes. This has resulted in lees number of fishing days for fishers driving them to other avenues of economic activity viz., day wage labours etc. Therefore, this sustenance activity through fish catching too is getting threatened and economically un-remunerative. Till recent past the fishery governance of line departments in hill states

was restricted to issuing license to fishers to fish in these wild waters , primarily a revenue generating activity of the department without any concern for the ecosystem that sustain such fish stocks.

Sport fishing: In the Himalayan states especially Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Hill regions of Uttrakhand , some North-eastern states especially Arunachal Pradesh , Meghalaya , Sikkim etc fishery in higher reaches was restricted to promoting and propagating sport fishing focused on brown trout and mahseer. Entire thrust of fishery departments is to regulate angling by issue of permits to anglers and collect the prescribed fee. In some states this is regulated by Fishery department while in some it is regulated by the forest department. This type of activity does not generate income to fishers but to the persons connected with tourism related activity. In this process the line departments generate some revenue while anglers follow some stipulated guidelines The data reveals that over the years, angler’s catch per rod per stream beat has declined both in numbers and size in case of brown trout and mahseer in all the streams in North-western and North-eastern Himalayas. This has resulted in fixing lower bag limit of each species for the anglers and large numbers of beats (angling spots along the stream) that used to be good fishing zone are now devoid of fish. This situation has diverted professional anglers to other regions contributing to decline in fish sport related tourists. Internationally sport fishing is managed on scientific lines but in our country management is still in a primitive stage, we at best have regulation but no fish stock and ecosystem management in place. But all our hill states have great potential to harness the economic benefits from angling tourism provided appropriate management, funding and policy support is provided. There is possibility of involving community and private players in this economic activity. An important aspect of coldwater fish of the uplands is the opportunity the species provide for sport. Brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and certain species of large –scaled barbels are the principal species of sport value in Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, North-Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh

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other NE hill regions apart from Nilgiris, Kodai hills, Munnar ranges where the Indian and Foreign tourists annually visit in large numbers. In certain regions, sport fishery constitutes an important source of revenue.

Enhancing fish-based livelihoods

bodies may be identified in hill regions, many remain unreported. Further, establishment of largesize fish aquaria in biodiversity parks / knowledge parks / water parks in PPP mode will be added attraction to the visitors but this needs to be put as a viable business model.

Ornamental fishery

Fish-based -tourism About 3,800 km lengths of river and stream stretches in the upland regions of our country are holding sizeable mahseer and 714 km brown trout, for angling purposes. There are number of potential trout streams in the States of J&K , H.P., Uttrakhand, NEH regions. Further, numbers of high mountain lakes in these states are also stocked with trout and attract anglers all over the world. Apart from traditional sport fishing, in the recent years it has grown as entrepreneurship in some places. A few progressive farmers in Kullu-Manali (HP ) and Sikkim have developed their own trout farms located near to highways or tourist places as sport fishing enterprises. They have transformed sport fishing operation. Besides providing thrill of angling they also provide rest places, food related facilities at affordable prices. Similarly some progressive farmers in Pithoragarh district in Uttrakhand have developed excellent exotic carp based sport fishery enterprise integrating boating and swimming in the module. Other candidate species viz., Mahseer can be included in this package at in-situ protected sites as well. The farmers have converted their fish farms into multi-dimensional venture apart from routine fish production. As a result a small-scale fish farm in hills can be transformed into a yearround livelihood earner for the owners. Such small initiative can be successful models with support from development agencies. In addition there are many religious protected water bodies in hills that are a source of income to local communities. For example Martand temple pond in Kashmir; Gangabal lake in Kashmir ; Renuka lake in Himachal Pradesh ; the Ganges river stretch near Rishikesh ; Gomti river at Baijnath ; Naldamyantital in Uttrakhand ; are great in fish watching , feeding and conservation. These small units can be suitably managed to make them generate more livelihoods with adequate support services. More such water

Some very colourful and fascinating fishes inhabit varied habitats in our hill regions. Many of these have great potential for ornamental fish trade while have such suitable traits to be exploited. There is a scope for small scale enterprise in this trade , as a backyard activity in remote rural areas coupled with ancillary units for making of fish aquaria , feeds , aerators and related aquaria items. This trade of keeping ornamental fishes in households is catching up.

Culture of food fishes High value low volume fishes (Rainbow trout) In our hills, Rainbow trout, Onchorhynchus mykis is potential species that commands higher market price in comparison to any other species, cultured or caught from wild. However, the per unit trout productivity is less in comparison to carps but that is compensated by the high price it commands. Now that large scale production of table size rainbow trout is possible it has created a demand among people in different up-market outlets. This demand is bound to increase with more and more people wanting to buy quality fish. But all this requires assured quantities and supply. In order to achieve such targets necessary action plan needs to be developed at the State, involving private farmers and linking up all the chain from production to consumption. To increase the rainbow trout production in the country we need to significantly improve infrastructure in terms of seed production capacity (hatcheries) , quantity of feed at all life stages of trout ( modern feed mills ) and strengthen our trout table fish production. At present our hatcheries have a capacity to rear only 10-12 million trout ova. Finally make efforts to put in engineering devices to maintain adequate water flows to farms at the same time improve the water quality essentially required for successful trout farming.

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Improve Production If we look at the production sites of this fish to the demand centers , we find that except for government controlled farms in the states of Jammu & Kashmir and to some extent private farmers in Himachal Pradesh no other hill state has the farm capability to produce the table trout on a large scale to meet the growing demand. Therefore, private farming in area has to be promoted in big way. Our current level of production of seed is 2-2.5 million and 250-450 tonnes of table fish which possibly comes from 12-15 farms of various sizes and levels across the country. It is possible to raise this production by 10 times both in terms of seed and table fish. The trout production does not require huge land spaces but it requires good quality sufficient water, at more water volumes per unit trout production can be raised at higher stocking density. In our Himalayan States there is no dearth of quality water but its proper management is necessary to produce trout at specific sites. Since the trout farming is more cost intensive with high production cost the private farmer is not easily attracted to its end to end farming. It is observed that only well to do farmers ventures in this activity. The hill states have to expand this activity through revamping existing schemes and providing proper technology support services by involving private farmers in a big way and not restrict its production to government farms alone.

Ensure seed and feed supply The success of trout farming depends on quality seed, quality water including required quantity, and assured supply of high quality trout feed. Since the farmers in hills are resource poor, the kind of investment needed to produce quality trout seed and feed has to come from the state. We need to put state of art hatcheries, brood stock farms and feed production plants to produce different grades of feed specifically for alevins , fry , fingerlings and table fish. The trout growers may be restricted to produce table fish for the market in their farming units. These growers may obtain the required seed and feed from the approved hatcheries and feed plants on government approved costs. The hatcheries may be set-up at high altitudes while

growing units and feed plants can be located at places having transportation facilities. The existing schemes launched by national Fisheries Development Boards may be tapped for specific funding needed. We may also explore PPP mode in this area in hills at suitable selected sites. There is potential of entrepreneurship in establishing small scale trout feed plants in hills.

Marketing Another important issue in the spread of trout farming is the long distance between, the production centers / sites usually located in remote hill regions, and the markets in plains / foot-hills where the farmer will get remunerative price for his produce. The trout fish commands a price range of Rs. 250 to Rs. 300 per kg cannot be sold on a large scale near to production site because of very little local demand and purchasing power of people living in remote hill regions. Therefore, the harvest has to be transported to long distance markets. The transport mechanism in hills is mainly road which is costly in comparison to rail transport, this adds to per unit cost of fish. To overcome this issue it is suggested that small trout growers in hills to pool their catches / harvest so that cost on transport can be minimized for common marketing strategy.

Value addition In India, production of farmed trout from hill region is estimated at 500 t /year and further increase is projected. The major producers are states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and hill regions in North-east. With likely large volumes there is need to look into issues related to post-harvest and value addition. The trout being very delicate fish is easily impacted by temperature variations so has to be transported to market outlets in shortest possible time under low temperatures to maintain its delicate quality in order to fetch good price. In hills especially near to production centre such facilities are not available. Therefore, there exists a scope for creating value addition units close to production centres. These centres may preserve the fish for a longer duration or may make value-added products, so as to attract a wider market across the country. Therefore,

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establishment of cold-chain, freezing plants, fish dressing, filleting, packaging, transportation and distribution are some of potential entrepreneurship areas. Further, units that make patties, pickles etc from trout or any other coldwater fish species can be livelihood generating activity. In the country we have such technology of fish processing in marine sector. Some efforts in value addition for trout have been initiated by CIFT, Kochi.

High volume low value fishes (Carp farming) Recent researches conducted by DCFR indicate that due to simpler farming techniques, low input requirements and feasibility of harnessing available resources, farming of Chinese carps in small size water bodies (100-300 sq. meters in area ) in hills is now becoming popular in Uttrakhand. The composition of species varies from mono-culture of common carp to mixed culture with silver and grass carp. In the region the integration of this carp culture with dairy, horticulture, paddy and other local crops is being accepted by the farmers. Among various species the grass carp emerged as a popular species for the low-cost hill aquaculture. This mixed culture of fish species has been standardized in the altitudinal range of 800-2000 masl in Central and North-eastern Himalayas by DCFR, Bhimtal. The management practices developed have been able to achieve fish production in the range of 0.34 to 0.68 kg m 2 (3400-6800 kg /ha/y) from the earthen ponds of Uttrakhand , Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. The researches have shown that mixed carp culture based on Common carp, Silver carp and Grass carp in integration of agriculture and horticulture is quite economically viable in our hills in the altitudinal range of 900 – 1740 masl. The long term experiments carried out between 19992005 by NRCCF now DCFR in various locations in Uttrakhand registered estimated fish production range between 3204 to 4972 kg / ha / y using species combination of Grass carp (35-50%) , Silver carp (20-30%), Common carp (30-35%).

Enhanced Fishery Mahseer is very important fish in the mid-altitude regions in Northern and Eastern Himalayas. The existing technologies developed by DCFR and other organization including some states make it a

likely candidate for culture as far as controlled seed production and feed development is concerned. But to make it a suitable and economically viable candidate for farmers to take up its culture on extensive scale would need more refinement in technology. Presently we can take a massive conservation aquaculture programme by producing seed is large quantity and ranch the suitable sites in our streams and lakes in the hill to augment the natural stocks. Successful models have been pilot tested and encouraging results obtained. In this case we have standardized technology for brood stock development, hatchery designs and its seed production.

Way Ahead Trout – exotic Trout farming has good potential due to abundant supply of good quality water in our hill regions. The rainbow trout commands good price therefore, it could be traded as low volume high returns commodity. With existing technology back-up promote establishing trout feed units and also low tonnage processing units in hill regions by the entrepreneurs for value addition. The private farmers to be encouraged to raise the table size trout for which the government should provide assistance in construction of viable production unit. The seed production activity, due to higher infrastructure cost, should be undertaken at government farms only. These farms to ensure supply of seed and feed to the trout grower at reasonable cost. Markets and marketing channels to be linked appropriately so that a grower from a remote hill region gets a remunerative price for his produce. Seed production sites could be developed at high altitude regions while the production centres could be located near to foot hills having favourable water temperature . This will reduce the transportation cost of table fish to the urban markets. All the private production units to be registered to enable them to receive proper monitoring and advise to handle their stocks in the event of any problem. The sport fishery activity with regards to trout especially of brown variety should be promoted and supported in big way. It has the potential to generate indirect income through tourism. Both line departments in States

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viz., fisheries and tourism to provide incentive and support.

Other fishes – carps including mahseer In comparison to plains in hill regions we do not have large areas under ponds and tanks, therefore, our fish culture ponds have to range between 4001000 m2. These small impoundments are created through various watershed schemes and diversion of small stream-lets by a farmer in his agriculture farming area. The carp culture technology for the mid-hill regions is standardized and can be extended in these regions. The bigger fingerling size seed can be stocked in these small ponds to achieve faster growth to table fish since the growing period in such mid-hill regions lasts from March to October. By end of November fish can be harvested for the market. In order to make the marketing of produce viable, we need to link these small pond owners in a cluster from different villages. So that individual fish harvest can be pooled together for better marketing locally or transporting the produce to nearest uptown market. Since the large quantity carp fish seed is produced in the hatcheries located in the plains, it is carried to mid-hill regions for stocking purposes. Efforts should be made to establish hatcheries in upland regions to fulfill the seed requirement for hill regions. Specialized hatcheries to be established to produce mahseer on mass scale for conservation aquaculture. The carp farming strategy in hills should have altitude wise approach. For altitudinal range of 800-1300 masl the operation period should be March to October using earthen/ RCC pond of 400-1000 m2 area with species combination of Grass carp , Silver carp , Common carp , Rohu , Mahseer / Katli at stocking density of 2-3 nos per sq. meter. The fish crop to be harvested by mid- November. In comparison for altitude range of 1300-1800 masl the operation period should be April to October using a earthen / RCC pond size of 150-400 m2 with species combination of Grass carp , Silver carp and Common carp at stocking density of 3-4 nos per sq. meters. The fish crop to be harvested by early November. The results of the production figures under different management practices certainly indicate that culture of these carps in hills is easy to operate , economical and eco-friendly since it is able to recycle the cattle yard / agriculture /

kitchen refuse into value added fish biomass. The experiments conducted on integrated farming in hills revealed about 30% income contribution from fish culture. The economic evaluations of fish culture carried out under Transfer of Technology progarmme in hill regions of Uttrakhand reported higher profitability from fish-based integrated farming system. The hills also have water scarcity problem as a result of seepage and water retention. A model intervention has been developed by DCFR in Uttrakhand using high density polythene layering with soil in the pond to improve water retention. This has been successfully demonstrated to farmers with good production.

Policy issues The aquatic resources in hills are quite valuable for the development of fishery both for food and sport, but scientific management of these resources is necessary to achieve the objectives. In order to manage these ecosystems so that they contribute to fishery development of remote hilly regions on a sustainable basis, the following issues need attention. Ownership of resources: Practically all the water resources suitable for hill fishery in the state are owned by the forest / irrigation department. For implementation of fishery development programme there is a need to place them under the management of fishery department. Infrastructure development: in the form of construction/renovation of existing fish farms and hatcheries on a priority to promote aquaculture activities. Develop modern facilities. Lake fisheries a balanced strategy for lakes for tourism and fishery development. Hill fisheries conservation in streams vis-à-vis other users of the resource. Development of sport fishery in linkage with tourism involving angling facilities and ranching of mahseer and trout in streams. Conservation of native and exotics in natural ecosystems need enforcement of protective legislation and adopting aquaculture practices on a large scale.

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Hill Fishery Education / Skill development: Fishery development due to specialized climatic and species variability need specific knowledge base and trained manpower to man the sector. Presently specific course work with focus on Coldwater Fishery both open-water and aquaculture, in the existing colleges in Hill SAU’s is very inadequate, which requires attention. In this context DCFR can play a role in linkage with SAU’s / CIFE. The problem of development of trained manpower is very critical for future growth of the sector. At State level there is serious paucity of trained manpower at various levels. Some initiative can be taken under skill India programme.

Future drivers of growth and strategy It is projected that in hills the integrated development will be more sustainable in future. The increased productivity from available water resources can be harnessed through fish, crop, horticulture, floriculture and eco-tourism by promoting sport fishing. This is obviously necessary since any increased industrialization in hill regions, for accelerating economic growth, will harm the already sensitive and fragile ecology of Himalayas. We should strive to enhance the fish production in hills especially of high value species viz., trouts with an aim to achieve a targeted production of 5000 t with each hill state contributing more that 1000 t. Our effort will be to develop suitable fish species combination for farming at different altitudes in uplands apart from trouts , which will significantly contribute to total inland fish production basket. The current level of contribution ranging between 3-4% of total inland production should be raised to about 10% by 2025. It is hoped that entire culture system for snow-trout and mahseer will be in place so that both species find export market for their quality. The increased productivity will meet the basic demands for nutrition security in hills and is likely to be a major instrument for socio-economic improvement of hill regions. The objective of this vision is to provide a sense of purpose to our efforts and framework to implement any action plan. Obviously, it has to be supported with proper planning and programming. Our dream is “To harness hill fish for food and

livelihood security to hill communities, through generation, assessment, refinement and adoption of appropriate technologies”. Towards this, the hill fisheries management and aquaculture perspectives for the upland States and a crucial role of the DCFR in addressing technology related issues will be important to achieve the projected goal. The major issues that need to be addressed to achieve the projected growths are listed as under:

Genetic characterization and conservation: To make inventory and characterize hill aquatic resources with regard to their bio-resources and production functions. Develop strategies for conservation of important food / sport fishes facing decline Environment Management: Evaluate Environmental Impacts in upland aquatic resources and develop mitigation action plans for restoration Aquaculture: Develop end to end culture system of suitable fish species for different altitudes in hills. Post -Production and Health Management: Reduce production losses due to disease especially in high value species. Develop techniques of preservation for long distance transportation of stocks, value addition and marketing Mechanization: Introduce mechanical tools in farming practices in high value fish species to increase efficiency and reduce manual workload. Demonstrations: Improve interface with farmers, NGO’s and line departments to have effective frontline demonstration programmes. Institutional capabilities: Enhance the facilities and capabilities to undertake research in frontier areas in coldwater fishery sector. Human Resource Development: This area needs special attention and course on Hill Fishery to be initiated as linkage activity to produce trained manpower for the sector. Partnerships: Increase public-private sector linkage in the sector. Promote more network projects Informatics: Develop a comprehensive database for the coldwater fishery sector.

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Culture and carps in high altitude-some ideas on its successful management. In : Aquaculture Management (Eds. Goswami U.C. & D.Kumar) Narendra Publishing House, Delhi.

References Ayyappan, S, Jena, J.K., Lakra, W.S., Srinavasa Gopal, T.K., Gopalakrishnan, A., Vass, K.K., Sahoo, P.K., and Chakraborty Rina- 2016Fisheries Science pp 259-304. In 100 Years of Agricultural Sciences in India.p.512 ( Ed. R.B.Singh ). NAAS, New Delhi Publication. Das,D.N., Laskar,B.A., Sarma,D and Tyagi , B.C. -2010- Scope for mountain fishery based ecotourism in Arunachal Pradesh : In Coldwater Fisheries Management (Eds. Mahanta & Sarma) DCFR Bhimtal ,Publication pp 285-296 Jhingran,V.G. and Sehgal, K.L.-1978- Coldwater Fisheries of India. Inland Fisheries Society of India, Barrackpore , Publication . 240 p. Joshi , C.B.-1998- Mahseer fishery of some hill streams in Western Himalayas. Indian J.Fish, 35(4) : 327-29. Joshi , C.B.-2002- Artificial seed production of golden mahseer in Kumaon uplands. In Highland Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management (Eds.K.K.Vass&H.S.Raina) pp 275-283 Joshi , C.B. and Sunder , S – 1995- Breeding and culture of snow trout , S. richardsoni (Grey) in Kumaon Himalayas. Uttar Pradesh J.Zool : 15(2) : 136-40. Joshi , K.D.-2001- Brood stock rearing of Schizothorax richardsoni in farm conditions. Workshop paper at National Bureau of Fish Genetics resources , Lucknow Publication-3. Joshi, K.D., Vass, K.K. and Raina, H.S.-2005Experiments on rearing of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum) in Central Himalaya. Indian Journal of Fish , 52(3): 331337. Joshi, K.D. and Tyagi, B.C.-2008- Rearing of carp fry under polyhouse ponds at high altitudes of Uttranchal Himalayas during winters. Journal Inland Fish. Soc., 40(1): 78-81 Mahanta, P.C. and Sarma , D.-2009- Fisheries and Aquaculture scenario in NE region. In Souvenir , Assam Matsya Mahotsav, 2009 : pp 13-19. Mahanta,P.C., Tyagi, B.C., and Sarma, D.-2009-

Mahanta, P.C., Moza, Usha., and Joshi, K.D.-2011Coldwater Fisheries and Aquaculture. Pp 302325. In Handbook of Fisheries and Aquaculture . p1-1116. Indian Council of Agricultural Research Publication , New Delhi. Meenakumari,B., and Mahanta, P.C.,-2012Coldwater Fisheries in India : Issues and strategies for development. Pp 3-8 In : Silver jubilee SOUVENIR , DCFR , Bhimtal. Mohan, M and Basade , Y.,-2006- Effects of available diets with different protein to energy ratios on growth , nutrient utilization and body composition on juvenile Himalayan Golden Mahseer , Tor putitora (Ham) Asian Fishery Science, 18: 277-285 Nayak , A.K.and Vass, K.K.-2005- Development of database on freshwater lakes of Uttranchal in Central Himalayas . J.Inland. Fish.Soc., India , 37(2) : 80-82 Raina, H.S. and Vass, K.K.-1993- Distribution and species composition of zooplankton in Himalayan ecosystems . Int. Rev. Ges. Hydrobiol 78(2) ; 295-307. Raina, H.S.-1994-1994- Schizothoracids and their significance in upland coldwater fisheries in Himalayas. In Advances in Fisheries (Ed. Ahmed , S.A.). Hindustan Publ. Corporation , Ltd, New Delhi. Raina H.S -1999- Coldwater fish and fisheries in India : Lakes and reservoirs . In FAO Tech. Paper No. 385 , Rome , Fish and fisheries at higher altitude, Asia , pp 64-88. Sarma, D, Baruah, D, and Mahanta, P.C.-2010Performance of three pronged Chinese carp farming in mid-Himalayas of West Kameng district , Arunachal Pradesh . J.Inland Fish. Soc., India. 42 (2) : 48-51. Sarma, D, Pandey,N.N.,Srivastava, S.K., and Mahanta, P.C.- 2012- Artificial propagation of Rainbow Trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss )and Golden Mahseer ( Tor putitora ). New Strategies

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for Coldwater Fisheries Management in India. In Symposium Proceedings , Published by Manipur University, pp 328-337 Sehgal , K.L.-1989- Conservation and Management of aquatic ecosystems of Indian uplands. In ; Management of Aquatic Ecosystems, Narendra Publishing House , Delhi , pp 331-62. Sehgal , K.L.-1991- Coldwater Fisheries and its future scope in India. In : Workshop –cumseminar on Fish production technology, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and technology, Pantnagar, pp 1-7. Sunder, S.-1998- Role of exotic fishes in Indian Uplands. In; Fish.Gen. Biodiversity. Conservation. Natcon. Pub. 05: 301-314 Sunder , S- 2007- Snow-trout fishery , state of art and conservation needs in SAARC countries . Fishing Chimes 27(6): 8-15. Sunder , S ; Raina, H.S., Mohan, M., and Joshi , C.B.1995- Cultural possibilities of golden mahseer , Tor putitora (Ham) in Himalayan uplands. Uttar Pradesh J.Zool. 15(3): 177-181. Sunder , S., Raina, H.S., and Nautiyal , U.-1998Preliminary feeding trial on juveniles of golden mahseer , Tor putitora (Ham) at different stocking densities with artificial dry pellet diets. Indian J.Animal Sci. 68(4): 410-416 Tyagi, B.C. -2009- Culture of carps in high altitudes. In : Aquaculture Management (Eds. U.C.Goswami & Dilip Kumar ) ISBN 978-8190795-20-3: 428 Tyagi, B.C.,and Behl, R.-1998- Growth and survival of cultivable carps at high altitudes of Kumaon Himalaya under farm conditions. Fish.Gen. Biodiversity Conserv. Natcon Pub. 05 : pp 331338

Vass, K.K.-2000- Coldwater Fisheries Research in India . pp 114-123. In : Fifty Years of Fisheries Research in India ( Eds., Gopakumar, K., Singh, B.N., & Chitranshi, V.R.) ICAR , Publication ,New Delhi. Vass , K.K., and Gopakumar, K.-2000- Strategy for Hill Fisheries Development and Aquatic Resource Management . pp 190-204. In : Fifty Years of Fisheries Research in India. ( Eds: Gopakumar, K., Singh, B.N. & Chitranshi, V.R. ) ICAR Publication ,New Delhi. Vass , K.K.-2002- Water management and Fishery development : Problems and issues ; In Riverine and Reservoir Fisheries in India. (Eds : Bhoopendranath , M.R. et.al) Society of Fisheries Technologists , India , Kochi Publication . pp 338-344 Vass, K.K. and Raina, H.S.-2002- Prospects and problems of Angling tourism with regard to golden Mahseer (Tor putitora) in India. Pp 47-61. In : Biodiversity and Conservation of Aquatic Resources with regard to fish Mahseer ( Eds. Garg,H.P., Singh, G., Singh,J., and Tamot, P.) MPCST Publication Bhopal p192. Vass, K.K.-2005- Status , Constraints , Research Support and development action plan of Hill Fisheries.pp 198-216. In: Proc. Nat.Seminar on Aquatic Resource Management (Eds. K.K.Vass, S.A.H. Abidi & V.P.Agarwal ). Vass, K.K.-2006- Coldwater Fisheries. pp 208-226. In: Handbook of Fisheries and Aquaculture. P 1-755. Indian Council of Agricultural Research Publication, New Delhi. Vass, K.K. and Moza, Usha – 2011- Riverine Fisheries. Pp 169-207. In : Handbook of Fisheries and Aquaculture . Indian Council of Agricultural Research Publication, New Delhi. 1-1116 p.

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Genetic Diversity: Key for Sustainable Coldwater Fisheries Gopal Krishna* and Pavan-Kumar, Annam *Director, ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Yari Road, Mumbai-400061

1. Introduction With the varied agro-climatical conditions and ecosystems, the Indian subcontinent harbours huge freshwater fish diversity and considered as one of the mega biodiverse countries in the world. Among different ecosystems, high latitude ecosystems (coldwater) are unique due to low temperature and high dissolved oxygen level. The fish diversity in these ecosystems has gained lot of attention from scientific community due to their unique morphological adaptations to survive in the system. A total of 258 fish species representing 21 families under 76 genera have been reported from higher latitude coldwater resources of India (Singh and Akhtar, 2015). Coldwater fisheries play an important role in providing livelihood to local people and also in maintaining ecological balance (Ganesh et al., 2014). Conversely, the conservation status of the most of the coldwater fishes has been assessed as endangered / threatened / vulnerable (IUCN, 2017). The reasons could be habitat destruction/modification, over exploitation, unscientific ranching programmes and climate change. The perpetual existence of biological entities is underpinned by genetic diversity and this genetic variation could be one of the factors responsible for speciation and population structuring. Genetic variation is also one of the critical components for formulating policies for sustainable management of coldwater fishery resources. However, for most of the coldwater fish species, the information on level of genetic diversity among / within populations is not available. Moreover, due to the phenotypic plasticity, coldwater fish species have not been delimited properly and still taxonomic ambiguity prevails among commercially important fish species (Khare et al., 2014). For sustainable utilization of

coldwater fishery resources, prior knowledge on fish diversity and population structuring is essential. Accordingly, appropriate strategies need to be devised implying latest molecular and information technological tools.

2. Fish diversity characterization Coldwater resources were not completely explored to document the fish diversity due to difficulties in accessing the upper stretches of rivers. Further, plasticity in morphological characters often mystifies species delimitation and causes erroneous synonymization / grouping of species. Recent developments in molecular taxonomy provide a reliable solution to delimit the species using phylogeny species concept. The adoption of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) partial sequence (650 bp) as a standard gene (barcode gene) to discriminate metazoans has highlighted occurrence of cryptic fish species in different ecosystems including coldwater fishes (Ward et al., 2009). Multigene barcoding (nuclear and mitochondrial genes) approach would be more appropriate to resolve the ambiguity in cryptic species (PavanKumar et al., 2016). Developing a regional ecosystem based multigene DNA barcode database would help in effective management of resources. This database could have applications in many facets of fisheries, for instance, invasive alien species can be identified accurately and rapidly irrespective of species life stages. Further, fish breeding grounds can be identified by identifying ichthyoplankton up to species level using barcoding approach. The barcodes can be used to develop a DNA chip which can be used in forensic and regulation of illegal ornamental fish trading.

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3. Genetic stock characterization Fishes inhabiting an ecosystem for over several generations would adapt to that ecology and some of the alleles would be fixed in that population. Fixation / variation of allele frequency over entire stretch of fish distribution resulted in genetic structuring of fish populations. The knowledge on fish population genetic structure is essential to know whether the fish species has been established as independent subpopulations or as a single population with gene flow between subpopulations. This information is important to devise management plans for a particular ecosystem. Recent developments in molecular genetics made it possible to identify loci responsible for adaptive traits through population genomics approach (Luikart et al., 2003). In this method, single nucleotide polymorphism (snps) will be developed for candidate species and would be used to screen populations using next generation sequencing approach. This technology would be applied to investigate the population structure and evolution of adaptive traits in coldwater fishes. Even though ranching programmes help in restoring depleted fish stocks, they must be based on scientific approach. For instance, releasing / ranching of mahseer seed produced from brooders of River Brahmaputra into River Kaveri would change / contaminate the genetic pool of native mahseer of River Kaveri. Even for same species, seed from one population / ecosystem should not be released into another population. For sustainable management, ranching programmes must be aimed at intra-population expansion rather than interpopulation mixing. This kind of management is possible if genetic stock structure information is available. Unfortunately, most of the agencies are showcasing ranching program without following / having genetic structure knowledge about the ranching species. It could have catastrophic effect on native fish fauna and would lead to loss of fish diversity.

4. Integration of information technology with biotechnology Some of the ICAR institutions have been working on characterization of genetic stocks of native fish stocks including coldwater fishes. These genetic diversity data should be used to map the population structure of fish species using GIS mapping tools along with other ecological parameters. Further, simulation models can be developed to predict how the genetic structure of population would vary as the ecological / environmental parameters change with respect to climate change. It requires collaboration from information technology, mathematics and biotechnology. Such kinds of simulation models are also useful to identify evolutionary significant areas / ecologically sensitive areas for further conservation purpose.

5. Conclusion Investigation of genetic diversity and subsequent implementation for sustainable coldwater fishes requires collaboration among different institutions including all stake holders.

References Ganesh, K. B., Shyam, S. S. and Katiha, P. K. (2014). Coldwater Fisheries. In: Livelihood Status of Fishers in India. Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, pp. 129-154. IUCN 2017. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2017-1. . Downloaded on 12 May 2017. Khare, P., Mohindra, V., Barman, A.S., Singh, R.K. and Lal, K.K. (2014) Molecular evidence to reconcile taxonomic instability in mahseer species (Pisces: Cyprinidae) of India. Org. Divers. Evol. 14:307−326. Luikart, G., England, P.R., Tallmon, D., Jordan, S., Taberlet, P. (2003). The power and promise of population genomics: from genotyping to genome typing. , Nat Rev Genet., 4: 981-994

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Pavan-Kumar, A., Gireesh-Babu, P., Jaiswar, A.K.., Chaudhari, A., Krishna, G. and Lakra, W.S. 2016. DNA Barcoding of Marine Fishes: Prospects and Challenges. In: DNA Barcoding in Marine Perspectives: Assesment and conservation of Biodiversity, Springer, Switzerland, pp.285-299. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-319-41840-7_17

Singh, A. K. and Akhtar, M. S. (2015). Coldwater fish diversity of India and its sustainable development. In: Biodiversity for Sustainable development. U.P Biodiversity Board publication, pp. 97-105. Ward, R. D., Hanner, R. & Hebert, P. D. N. (2009). The campaign to DNA barcode all fishes, FISHBOL. J. Fish. Biol. 74, 329–356.

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Status of Coldwater Fish Diversity in India and Strategies for Conservation K.D. Joshi and K. K. Lal* *Director, ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources Canal Ring Road, P.O. Dilkusha, Lucknow-226 002, Uttar Pradesh, India

1. Introduction The vast geographical area and varied topographical features of our country possesses diverse natural resources including myriads of water bodies. A vast network of criss-crossing rivers, rivulets and streams of different orders; rapids, riffles, side and deep pools and reservoirs commissioned on these rivers and streams situated in the upland region of the country are the valuable water resources.The region including Himalayas and peninsular Hill Ranges form an entirely different eco-geographical entity. The Himalayan region comprises four longitudinal physiographic sub-divisions: Trans Himalayan domain, Great Himalaya, Lesser Himalaya and Terai-Bhabar-Siwalik ranges situated between altitudinal ranges from 200 to 8000 msl. The Deccan plateau, Western Ghats including the Sahadary, the Nilgiris, the Annamalai and the Cardamom hills also comprises mountainous region between 750 to 2000 msl. The most of the geographical area in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland is under mountain covers while some part of Manipur, Tripura, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu fall under mountains. The mountainous region bestowed with vast and varied water resources in the form of rivers, rivulets, streams, streamlets, lakes, ponds, tanks and reservoirs. The Indian Himalaya is drained by 19 major river systems, which include the drainages of the Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra river systems. The snow-fed Himalayan rivers traverse from these physiographic regions. The cumulative length of

the major upland rivers is estimated about 10,000 km. The lacustrine resources also varied from high altitude freshwater lakes, high altitude brackish to mid and lower altitudinal lakes. Total water area under lucustrine resources is about 20,500 ha and 2, 65,000 ha water spread area is under reservoirs (Mahanta and Joshi, 2010, Mahanta et al, 2011). The Coldwater Rivers and hill-streams are known for their high velocity, waterfalls, rapids, cascades, deep pools and substratum comprising with bedrockboulder-sand. The diverse aquatic habitats of the hills region harbour rich piscine diversity in different aquatic habitats. Owing the extreme variations in the habitat characteristics, the available species also vary from one to another habitats.Since the rivers in the region are under severe modification due to multiple ongoing anthropogenic activities, including construction of innumerable hydroelectric projects, the fish diversity is under massive threat.

2. Piscine diversity in the region The altitudinal and geographical variation, mountain slopes, expansion of river valleys and vegetation cover has given rise to varying climates in different parts of the country. As a result the vast and varied water resource in the upland harbours rich piscine diversity. The list of fishes comprises 258 species belonging to 21 families and 76 genera (Mahanta et al, 2011). Out of these a maximum of 255 species are recorded from North East Himalaya, 203 from the West and Central Himalayas and 91 from the Deccan plateau. Das et al, (2006) recorded 157 fish species from the upland coldwater region of the country. The principal fishery groups and

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species encountered in the region are detailed in the table-1: Table 1. Principal piscine groups and species in coldwater regions of India Snowtrouts

Schizothorax richardsonii, S. kumaonensis, Schizothoraichthys curvifrons, S. niger, S. micropogon, S. progastus

Mahseers

Naziritor cheylinoides, Tor mosal, T. putitora, T. tor, Neolissocheilus hexagonolepis

Minor carps

Crossocheilus latia, Garra gotyla, G. Lamta, Labeo dero, L. dyocheilus, Semiplotus semiplotus

Barils

Raiamas bola, Barilius bendelisis, B. Barila,

Catfishes

Glyptothorax pectinopterus, Pseudechenesis sulcatus

Loaches

Botia almorhae, Nemacheilus multifasciatus, N. rupecola

Exotics

Oncorhynchus mykiss, Salmo trutta fario, Ctenopharyngodon idellus, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix Cyprinus carpio, Carassius carassius

Eel

Mastacembelus armatus

India with good sport value are – golden mahseer (Tor putitora), deep-bodied mahseer (Tor tor), copper mahseer (Tor mosal), black mahseer (Naziritor chelynoides), chocolate mahseer (Neolissocheilus hexagonolepis), Indian trout (Raiamas bola) among indigenous species and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) amongst exotics.

Food fishes: Besides the sport fishes, the piscine groups – snow trout, minor carp, carp, cat fish, bagrids, barils, murrels and eel are generally used as food fishes in the region. The important genera among them are – snow trouts (Schizothorax and Schizothoraichthys sps), garra’s (Garra sps.), minor carps (Labeo sps.), barils (Barilius sps.), exotic carps (Ctenopharyngodon idellus, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Cyprinus carpio), cat fishes (Glyptothorax sp. Pseudechenesis sps) and eels (Mastacembelus armatus).

Ornamental fishes:

Though the total number of fish species recorded from the region is 258, but all are not truly coldwater species. The list also comprises warm water fishes like Indian major carps transplanted to different lakes and reservoirs of the region; exotic sport fishes and exotic carps (Table 2) introduced for aquaculture. Among these, only about 100 species are stenothermal or eurythermal and restricted to cold water regions only. The diverse fish germplasm of the region is known for availability of number of Rare, Endangered & Threatened (RET) and endemic species restricted to rivers and tributaries of Jammu and Kashmir (Schizothoraichthys spp.) and North Eastern Himalaya (Neolissocheilus hexagonolepis).

3. Commercial importance of the species As far as commercial importance is concern, some coldwater species are known for sports, some others as food fishes and a few for their potential ornamental value as detailed below:

Sport fishes: The important fishes present in the coldwaters of

Some very colourful and fascinating species are also inhabits in different aquatic resources of the coldwater zones. Some of these have already recognized as ornamental fishes in other part of the country, where as a few other species also have suitable traits. North East region is known as repository of ornamental fish species. Out of total 255 species reported about 187 (74 %) are known for their ornamental value (Dey and Sarmah, 2003). Some of the important species are – Puntius conchonius, P. gelius, P. ticto, P. sophore, Brachydanio rerio, Botia almorhae, Carassius carassius , Badis badis, Barilius barna, Barilius vagra, C. auratus etc.

Cultivated and cultivable species: Presently the fish farming in the hilly region is based on exotic species. But there are some native species having cultivable traits, which could be classified as: The species being used for culture: Ctenopharyngodon idellus, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Cyprinus carpio, Labeo rohita, Catla catla, Cirrhinus mrigala and Oncorhynchus mykiss. The cultivable species: Tor putitora, Tor tor, Naziritor chelynoides, Neolissocheilus hexagonolepis,

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Table 2. Introduction of major fish species in coldwater region S.N.

Species

Common name

Year

Remarks

1

Salmo trutta fario

Brown trout

1863-1908

Established

2.

Salmo lavensis

Loach leven trout

1863

Vanished

3.

Onchorhynchus mykiss

Rainbow trout

1909 onward

Exist

4.

Salmo gairdneri irideus

Steelhead trout

1867,1940

Vanished

5.

Salmo gairdneri shasta

Steelhead trout

1941

Vanished

6.

Salvelinus fontinalsis

Book trout

1959

Vanished

7.

Salvelinus namaykush

Splake trout

1968

Vanished

8.

Oncorhynchus nerka

Sockey salmon

1968,1970

Vanished

9.

Salmo salar

Atlantic salmon

1968

Vanished

10.

Carassius carassius

Gold fish

1974

Exist

11.

Tinca tinca

Tench

1873

-

12.

Cyprinus carpio communis

Common carp, Scale carp

1939,1957

Exist

13.

Cyprinus carpio specularis

Mirror carp

1939,1957

Exist

14.

Cyprinus carpio nudus

Leather carp

1939,1957

Exist

15.

Ctenopharyngodon idella

Grass carp

1959

Exist

16.

Hypophthalmichthys molitrix

Silver carp

1959

Exist

17.

Gambusia affinis

Top minnows

1928

Exist

Labeo dero, Labeo dyocheilus, Osteobrama belangeri, Semiplotus semiplotus and Schizothorax richardsonii. Due to slow growth rate these species are not used for commercial culture in the region at present.

4. Status of fishery resources in the region Most of the Indian rivers are overexploited to fulfil the ever increasing demand for power, agriculture, industrial and municipal sectors (Joshi, et al, 2014). Construction of dams and barrages: Since, India is currently facing big shortages in base and peak electricity (Jain, 2015). As of 2014, the country has 255 GW of installed generation capacity out of which thermal-based projects account for 178 GW, nuclear sources 4780 MW, renewable 31.7 GW and 40.8 GW is contributed by hydropower plants (Jain, 2015). Hence, the serious actions are

underway to harness the available green source of electricity from potential regions in the country. Damming of rivers or tributaries is the root cause of severe modifications and perturbations to the river flow, velocity, depth, substratum, pools, ecology and fish habitats. The Himalayan rivers are the preferred choice for hydro-power developers because of assured perennial flow, steep gradients, gorges with stable rocky banks. Owing to these attributes the rivers and their ecological assets in the mountain states of Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal and Arunachal Pradesh, including fisheries resources are under severe threat. The river Ganga along with its major tributaries is dammed or proposed at about 70 sites in its upper stretch for the purpose of hydro-electric projects. As a result, the downstream ecosystem, fishery and benefits of the dependent populace are at stake. The series of dams cause complete alteration of the river hydrology and habitats (Joshi, 2017). Large scale river modifications, abstraction, excessive drawal

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of riparian groundwater; over-exploitation and wanton destruction of fishery resources in the rivers are causing depletion in the sensitive fish species and appearance of exotic fishes. In many instance, the Himalayan rivers are also being obstructed under cascade regimes with meager intermittent free flow; causing destruction of feeding and breeding grounds of fishes, obstruction of migratory routes and nutrients dispersal. The obstructions have also blocked migratory route of the important Himalayan fishes like mahseer and snowtrouts. These fishes have inherent migratory habit of overwintering, particularly to overcome the severe cold conditions during winters. Further, owing to complete change of the river habitat from fluviatile system to lentic, obstructing the continuous flow, meager downstream flow (sometimes zero flow) there is complete change in downstream hydrology, ecology, fish diversity and compositions. As a result there is massive shift in the fish diversity and fishery of the systems in the potamon zone linked with drastic change in physico-chemical features. If the exploitation continue as per present momentum, the Indian rivers will probably lose valuable fish germplasms, which are required for sustenance of ecological balance; their medicinal, ornamental, sport, food values and germplasm for posterity.

Destruction of fish habitats: There are innumerable causative factors responsible for destruction of the fish habitat. Besides construction of dams, many other activities i.e. massive deforestation activities along the fragile mountains, construction activities, grazing and browsing by domestic cattle herds, faulty farming practices and excessive drawal of river waters. All these anthropogenic activities facilitate the rate of soil erosion from the fragile mountain slopes. It is estimated that the construction of 1 km road in Himalayan region results in erosion of 40-80 thousands m3 of hills and the regional rate of soil erosion from Kumaon region has been estimated as 1 mm/year (Valdiya 1987). The resultant silt, cobbles and boulders from the mountain slopes find way to the adjoining streams, rivulets, rivers, lakes and reservoirs and causes swallowing of the systems and deteriorates the feeding and breeding grounds of the fishes. The sudden influx of the

massive silt load in the stream or river waters after heavy rains, sometimes cause choking of the gill rackers, eye and head injury and mass mortality in the fishes (Joshi, 2003). The heavy silt load coming from adjoining mountain peaks around Nainital lake have deposited a layer of about 6 m on lake bottom in the last 5 decades (Das and Pandey, 1978). The excessive rate of soil erosion from the catchments has destructed the natural deep pools within the stream and rivers. The residue of the forest fire that is a common phenomenon during summer months further aggravates the problem. The fire burns the varied forest litter and also destroys the topsoil layer. The first heavy shower wash away the inorganic matter along with the ash, eroded silt and debris into the nearby streams that ultimately reaches upto the river or lake and alters the physico-chemical characteristics of the natural waters and causes fish mortality.

Aquatic pollution: The organic load from domestic refusal, washing and bathing activities along the small streams alters the physico-chemical properties of the system and causes deleterious effect on the fishery. Das and Pande ( 1978) observed that the population explosion and related environmental factors like siltation by construction around the water bodies, pollution from laboratory chemicals and sewage discharge are the major factors responsible for mass fish mortality in Nainital lake. In an another study Das and Pande (1978) observed a 6 inch thick layer of organic putrefying mat on the bottom of Nainital lake that causes anaerobic condition at lake bottom with release of ammonia, hydrogen sulphide and methane gases and causes mass mortality of fishes. The rivers or river stretches traversing through towns, construction sites and area of massive human interferences are generally polluted due to concentration of effluents.

Wanton destruction: A number of highly destructive and illegal fish killing devices are also in vogue in the hill region of the state. Use of dynamite in the river pools, poisoning by extracts of some toxic local plants and bleaching powder and even electrocution in some river pockets causes mass scale destruction of the

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fishery resources. The complete sieving of a stream channel after diverting the main channel towards another side is also another fatal device. Mass destruction of fish from an entire river stretch on religious ground is also in vogue in some part of the region. Recent killing of a rare 125 kg giant Bagarius bagarius by the villagers from the river Ramganga West, attracted attention of media; is an example of the indiscriminate destruction.

Malthusian over exploitation: The upland streams are highly prone to the human interference due to comparatively lesser and easily manageable water volume. The fishery resources particularly along the accessible stretches of the rivers and lakes are under severe stress from over exploitation. In most of the sites the people used to catch fish with the help of locally fabricated gearscast nets, gill nets, mosquito net, traps, rod and lines. The fishes are almost completely exterminated by the poacher from the smaller streams like Gandaki, during summer season, when water level is at its minimum level (Joshi, 2003). The fishing pressure in most of the water bodies is at its peak during premonsoon and post-monsoon season (Joshi, 2003). The sizeable fraction of the resident fishes sheltering in the systems are completely destroyed when water level decreased to minimum and many of the mature fishes coming from the lower reaches for breeding in the upstream during monsoon and post-monsoon season are also killed. Such a phenomenon of high intensity fishing can be described as Malthusian Over fishing where brooders and juveniles have been virtually exterminated (Pauly, 1988).

5. Suggestive measures for conservation and management of the diversity Since our rivers hold towering potential for generation of green energy and irrigation of agricultural lands for production of food grains for increasing human population. As a result the developmental activities pertaining to rivers are spreading throughout the width and length of the country affecting ecological conditions of most of the rivers. Hence, besides implementation of strict regulations for release of environmental flow from all the dams and barrages under construction or

proposed, there is an urgent need to protect some very important rivers, which are natural habitats for our valuable fish biota, from rapidly spreading developmental activities (Joshi, et al, 2017). Further, there is an urgent need to initiate an integrated approach for conservation and management of these valuable resources. Besides, strict implementation of environmental flow releases from the dams and barrages, strict enforcement of Indian Fisheries Act, there are some potential areas need be harnessed for dual objectives of conservation and management:

Fishery based eco-tourism (FBET): Eco-tourism is a sustainable model of resource use, which contributes to environmental conservation, while providing accrued socio-economic benefits to the people through the non-consumptive uses and indirect values of the natural biological resources. Considering the vulnerable nature of our environment, eco-tourism based on optimum multiple uses of the resources on sustainable basis is an excellent option for livelihood and conservation. Fishery based eco-tourism is emerging potential area for employment generation. Valuable catfishes, mahseer, rare Indian trout and other carnivorous fishes available in rivers or open water sector have excellent potential as sport fishes among the anglers. Angling, or recreational fishing, is one of the most popular outdoor activities throughout the world. The revenues from fishing licenses support fish and wildlife management agencies at all levels of government, and the expenditures from recreational fishing contribute to local and regional economies, especially in regions where fisheries have been preserved in pristine or near-pristine conditions (Joshi, 2010). At present the sport fishery and angling is a popular amazing sport particularly in hill region. The Indian Himalayas are abode for sport fishing. Anglers from all over the world flock to the Indian rivers to try and hook the mighty mahaseer or trout. About 3,800 km lengths of river and stream stretches in the upland region of our country are holding sizeable mahseer and 714 km brown trout, for angling purpose. The important brown trout streams and rivers includes Lidder, Simal, Erin, Madhmati, Tricker, Kokernag, Berinag (J. & K.), upper reaches of Beas & Sutlej (H. P.), Ashiganga, Birehi, Pinder,

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Bhagirathi (U.K.) Among the himalayan streams and rivers, Beas and its tributaries in the foot hill region and the river Giri (HP), Yamuna between Tajwala (Haryana) to Dak Pathar, Ganga between Rishikesh to Tehri and its tributaries, the Kali, Saryu, East & Western Ramganga, East & Western Nayar, Song, Kosi (Uttarakhand), river Chenab and its tributaries, and rivers Jia-bhoreli, Dibang, Subansiri and Manas (NEH Region) are important fishing sites for mahseer. Apart from these, the lakes of Kumaon (Bhimtal, Khurpatal, Naukuchiatal, Nal Damyantital and Sattal) also contribute substantially to mahseer fishery and provide ample scope for fish sport. Apart from above Himalayan sites, there are many potential places and river stretch available in the plains which also hold threatened/ rare/ prized fish species like Raiamas bola, Tor tor, Notopterus chitala, Notopterus notopterus, Sperata spp. Ophiocephalus spp, Rita rita etc. Promotion of Fishery based eco-tourism in these sites would encourage awareness about fish conservation and also open avenue for development of tourism (Joshi, 2010).

Development of fish watching sites: Like bird watching, fish watching also has scope for its expansion. Moving shoals of different size, colour and shaped fishes always provide joy to the visitors particularly to children. Many of the religiously protected water bodies in the hills like Martand temple at Mattan (Anantnag) in Jammu & Kashmir; Renuka lake in Himachal Pradesh; river stretch of Ganga at Haridwar and Rishikesh, Gomati river at Baijnath, Nal Damayanti tal in Uttarakhand are some examples of fish watching spots, which attracts thousands of tourists. Similar spots need be developed near tourist sites in other parts of the country for visiting tourists (Joshi, 2010).

In-situ conservation of selected river and wetlands: Some of the potential rivers or river stretch comprising rich biota need be protected as per management of forests. The existing management of our forests and wild life is an excellent example for protection of the resources. For conservation of forest and wild life a total of 1,60, 901.77 km2 i.e. about 4.89 % of the total geographical area of

the country, is being protected in different agroclimatic regions under National Parks, Wild Life Sanctuaries, Community Reserves, Conservation, Protected areas (ENVIS Centre on Wildlife and Protected Areas, Wild Life Institute of India). Similar steps need be initiated for protection of our riverine resources including valuable native fisheries with selection of sizeable stretches in different geographical regions and declaration of the areas as protected or aquatic reserves. In this process, some stretches, tributaries and streams of the major rivers including Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra and rivers of East and West coasts, could be conserved for protection of valuable biotic resources including fish germplasm for sustainable use and posteriority (Joshi, 2017).

6. Efforts of ICAR-NBFGR in conservation of coldwater fish diversity ICAR-NBFGR, Lucknow striving on exploration, characterisation, cataloguing and conservation of fish germplasm of the country, has also intervened substantially in the field of conservation of coldwater fish germplasm. Institute declared some of the depleting flagship fish species as State Fish, for greater interest of creating awareness among the stake holders for conservation (Lakra et al, 2011). In the process, identified prized mahseer species -Tor putitora as state fish of Himalayan states - Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir. Also declared Neolissocheilus hexagonolepis as state fish of Nagaland; Semiplotus modestus for Mizoram, Ompok bimaculatus for Tripura. This endeavour would facilitate efforts for conservation of the species by the respective states. Institute prepared a chromosome atlas on Indian fishes depicting karyotypes of major fish species available in the country, covering some of the important coldwater fish species (Lal, 2011). Also developed species specific microsatellite DNA markers and DNA barcodes of some important coldwater fish species. As an important tool for ex-situ conservation, species specific sperm cryopreservation protocols have also been developed for certain important coldwater speciesOncorhynchus mykiss, Salmo trutta fario, Cyprinus carpio, Tor putitora, Labeo dero, Schizothorax

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richardsonii (Gopalkrishnan, et al, 2011). The diverse fish genetic resources, available in the fragile water bodies of upland region are under severe threat from anthropogenic pressures. Therefore conservation and management of the depleting species by means of habitat improvement, legal protection, in-situ conservation by creation of sanctuaries and national parks and ex-situ conservation is pre-requisite for sustenance of the diversity and ecological integrity. There is need to initiate ecosystem-approach, instead of a single species-approach for effective and sustainable conservation of the depleting biota.

References Das, P., P.C..Mahanta and A.K.Pandey, 2006. Fish Genetic Resources and their conservation. In: Handbook of Fisheries and Aquaculture. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. 31-55 p. Das, S.M. and Pande, 1978. Physico-chemical and biological pollution in lake Nainital. Indian J. Ecology, 5 (1):7-16. Dey, S.C. and S.K.Sarmah, 2003. Ornamental fish biodiversity of North Eastern Region of I ndia. In : Participatory Approach for fish biodiversity conservation in North Eastern India (Eds. P.C.Mahanta & L.K.Tyagi). N.B.F.G.R. Publication, Lucknow. 47-55 p. Gopalkrishnan, A., T. Raja Swaminathan and W.S. Lakra, 2011. Biotechnology in Fisheries and Aquaculture. In: Handbook of Fisheries and Aquaculture. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. 705-733p. Jain, S.K., 2015. Assessment of environmental flow requirements for hydro-electric projects in India. Current Science,108 (10): 1815-182 Joshi, K.D. 2003. Wanton destruction of fishery resources in upland streams- a case study. Protected Habitat and Biodiversity (Eds. S. Ayyappan et.al.). Nature Conservators Publications – 8: 249-254. Joshi, K. D., 2017. How to protect our valuable riverine fish species from multiple stressors? Current Science, 113 (2): 206-207.

Joshi,K.D., 2010. Status of coldwater fish diversity in India – A case study of Uttarakhand state. Abstract cum Souvenir of the International Workshop on “Mountain Biodiversity and Impact of Climate change with special reference to Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspots, held at G.B.P. Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Kosi, Almora from 6-8 December 2010. 37-46p. Joshi, K. D., D.N. Jha, M. A. Alam, Kalpana Srivastava, S.K. Srivastava, Vijay Kumar and A.P. Sharma, 2017. Studies on ecology, fish diversity and fisheries of Ken–Betwa rivers (India): Impact assessment of proposed inter-linking. Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management, 20 (1-2): 71-85. DOI:10.1080/14634988.2017. 1261576. Lakra, W.S., P. Das and U.K. Sarkar, 2011. Fish Genetic Resources and their conservation. In: Handbook of Fisheries and Aquaculture. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. 32-65p. Lal, K.K. 2011. Fish Genetics. In: Handbook of Fisheries and Aquaculture. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. 641-657p. Mahanta, P.C. and K.D. Joshi, 2010. Status of Coldwater Fisheries and Aquaculture in India. Fishing Chimes, 30 (1):146-150. Mahanta, P.C., U. Moza and K.D. Joshi, 2011. Coldwater Fisheries and Aquaculture. In: Handbook of Fisheries and Aquaculture. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. 302-325p. Sehgal, K.L. 1999. Cold Water Fish and Fisheries in the Indian Himalayas : Culture. Fish and Fisheries at Higher Altitudes- Asia, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 385: 89-102. Pauly, D. 1988. Some definitions of overfishing relevant to coastal zone management in South East Asia. Tropical Coastal Area Management. 3: 14-15. Valdiya, K.S., 1987. Environmental Geology, Indian Context. Tata Mc Graw Hill Publication, New Delhi, 583 pp.

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Fish Health Management in Freshwater Cage Culture S.K Manna and B.K. Das* *Director, ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata – 700 120

1. Introduction Most recently the national emphasis has been put to achieve the second blue revolution and doubling the farmer’s income. This could be achieved through fish production enhancement from inland open water bodies such as from wetlands, and reservoirs through enclosure culture. Fish production in wetlands and small reservoirs could be enhanced through pen culture, while in medium and large reservoirs fish production could be increased significantly through cage culture. There is enormous opportunity of fish production through cage culture in the country: a modest beginning with 10000 cages can produce more than 45000 tonnes of fish. India has a total of 3.55 million ha of reservoir area, of which about 1.9 million ha falls under medium and large reservoir category. Projecting that 1% of medium and large reservoir area would be brought under cage culture in coming decades would produce fish biomass in excess of the country’s requirements. Currently, there are about 6000 cages of different dimensions installed in different inland open water resources spreading across the country. States like Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have made significant progress in cage culture in reservoirs. Although several fish species have been tested and are cultured in cages worldwide, in India single dominated fish species for cage culture is Pangasianodon hypophthalmus. However, many important species such as, GIFT Tilapia, Jayanti Rohu, Puntius javanicus, Labeo bata, Lates calcarifer, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, besides air breathing, ornamental fishes and murrels are under field trial to establish its success under cage culture system. Like other culture systems, cage cultures are also

prone to many diseases and farmers must be well aware of such diseases to reduce loss from fish mortality. Compared to pond based aquaculture, enclosure culture poses higher risk to farmers from diseases, greater stress and growth limitation of fish, vulnerability to natural hazards like storm, strong current or tide, etc. In cage culture, disease occurrence, morbidity and mortality are very high, because of high stocking density in confined space of cage that favours disease transmission.

2. Risks and predisposing factors in cage culture: yy Fishes are generally stocked in high density in cages. High intensity of stocking is stressful to fish and makes the caged fishes prone to disease and mortality. Amount of stress from other stressors are also high in cages and are described below. yy Natural fish populations present in the water body where cage is being installed often gather around the cages to eat surplus feed that escapes cages. It is a common sign to see feral fishes to gather outside the cages to feed. The feral fish populations may be carrier of many pathogenic microbes and parasites and may easily transmit the pathogens to fishes grown inside the cages. yy The cage nets, if not cleaned regularly, are clogged with fouling organisms leading to stagnation of water and water quality deterioration inside cages. Fishes are stressed inside such clogged cages. yy Predation of stocked fishes by fish eating birds. yy Enclosure

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disturbances like storm, high tides, strong currents etc. that destabilizes or breaks the cage structures allowing stocked fishes to escape. Both loss of the stock and breaking of cage structure incur heavy loss to the farmers. Further, cages are prone to human created problems like poaching, vandalism, etc. if sufficient watch and ward are not maintained.

3. Common fish diseases in cage culture Like in pond culture or in any other culture environment, fishes are susceptible to infectious agents like fungi, bacteria and viruses. Different fish species may have different susceptibility to various pathogens and farm managers should be aware of the important diseases of the fish species cultured. Besides the cultured species themselves, wild fish in the water body may also transmit the pathogen to the cultured fish. Very often, bacterial fish pathogens are ubiquitous in water but cause disease when their number grow very high due to pollution etc., or when fish are stressed or their immunity is low from stress or during winter. Some of the important infectious diseases and parasitic diseases seen in freshwater cage culture in India are given below: Causative agent

Name of the disease

Aeromonas hydrophila, other motile Aeromonas sp. Flavobacterium sp. Pseudomonas sp. Flavobacterium columnare Edwardsiella ictaluri, E. tarda Yersinia ruckeri Saprolegnia parasitica, Achlya sp.

Dropsy, septicemia, ulcer, eye disease of Catla Tail and fin rot Septicemia Columnaris disease

Branchiomyces Aphanomyces invadans Ichthyophthirius multifilis Argulus sp. Myxosporeans Trichodina sp. Myxobolus sp.

4. Bacterial diseases of fish in cage culture Dropsy/ Motile Aeromonas septicaemia: It is a common disease of several fish species including major and minor carps, catfishes etc. in India and caused by virulent Aeromonas hydrophila and other motile Aeromonas species. Motile Aeromonas species are ubiquitous in aquatic environments and are part of fish flora. They are facultative pathogen and cause disease when fishes are stressed. Although Aeromonas septicaemia occurs round the year, it is more common during winter, especially at the start of winter season when fish immunity gets lowered due to rapid fall in water temperature, as well as during rainy season. Organic matter build up resulting in heavy microbial growth in water, bad water quality may also precipitate the disease. Clinically, there is reddish fluid accumulation in the abdominal cavity and in scale pockets leading to enlargement of abdomen, ruffled loose scales, haemorrhagic patches on skin, dark red anus, haemorrhages from gills and anus, exopthalmia and heavy mortality (Fig.1,2). There may be terminal septicaemia. The disease is most common after monsoon and beginning of winter and more than 50% of stock may die within a few days of onset. Carps are most commonly affected; however, the disease is also seen in many other species. Administration of antibiotics like oxytetracycline through feed is effective in containing the disease outbreak.

Edwardsiellosis Enteric red mouth Saprolegniasis Branchiomycosis/ fungal gill rot Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS) Ichthyophthiriasis (Ich) Argulosis or fish lice Myxosporidiosis Trichodiniasis White gill spot & scale spot disease

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Fig.1 Red spots on mouth of affected fish


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anterior portion of body and penduncle. Stress conditions precipitate the disease. Edwardsiellosis: The disease is caused by Edwardsiella species. While E. tarda infection is common in carps, E. ictaluri affects mainly catfishes. Typically, haemorrhagic spots are often found in patches over skin surface (Das et al., 2014). There may also be bloating of abdomen in catfishes. The infection may cause significant mortality within a short period in carps or low-grade chronic mortality in catfishes.

Fig.2 Haemorrhagic spots on dorsal aspect

Tail and Fin rot: This is a common health problem of young fishes, although larger fishes are also affected during winter and when fishes are stocked in very high density. This is caused by Cytophaga/ Flavobacterium group of bacteria, and others like motile aeromonads, pseudomonads etc. These bacteria are also ubiquitous in aquatic environments and are fond of proteins. Thus, when fishes are stocked in high density, are stressed from transport etc., when water quality is sub-optimal these group of bacteria proliferate and cause disease. In other words, stressful environment and bad water quality precipitates the disease. It is thus a common disease in cages within a few days of stocking, especially when fry or fingerling stages of fishes are transported from a long distance. In this condition, tail and fin gets necrosed, discoloured and sloughs off, with moderate to heavy mortality (Das and Mukherjee, 1997). Sometimes ulcers may be found at the base of the tail and fins. Use of antibiotics through feed, application of oxidizing agent like potassium permanganate, benzylokonium chloride are effective in controlling the disease. However, for long term disease control, improvement of water quality and reducing congestion and other stress are important. Columnaris disease: This is a serious condition, caused by the bacterium Flexibacter columnaris. Like other flavobacteria, these pathogens also cause disease when fishes are stressed due to transport etc. or when water quality is not satisfactory. Initially raised whitish or grayish plaques are seen over head and back giving a saddle back like appearance, followed by dark pigmentation, exopthalmia, and heavy mortality (Dash et al., 2009). The gills are often necrosed. Skin ulceration may develop on

Enteric Red Mouth disease: Enteric red mouth or ERM is caused by the bacterium Yersinia ruckeri. In this condition the mouth of fish including eyes typically looks red. Pin point haemorrhages are found in parts of body like near anus, caudal fins etc. with pale gills. The affected fishes are lethargic, with black discoloration on ventral side. On pressure thick yellow fluid dribbled out through anus. In post mortem, haemorrhage and congestion are found on liver, kidney, pancreas, intestine, musculature of abdominal wall and in brain. The disease occur due to poor environmental condition and stress factors like low dissolved oxygen, high water temperature, poor water quality etc. Oxytetracycline, oxolinic acid are effective in controlling the disease.

5. Fungal diseases of fish in cage culture Saprolegniasis: This is one of the most common fungal diseases seen in India. It is also called “cotton wool disease” and is caused by the water mold Saprolegnia parasitica and Achyla species. In enclosure cultures, this is seen commonly during winter months and when cage nets are clogged with fouling agents. Although the pseudofungus is ubiquitous in aquatic environments, disease precipitates when fishes are stressed and immunocompromised from long distance transport, low water temperature, bad water quality, sexual maturation etc. Whitish to off-white cotton wool like circular tufts are seen on tail, fins and around mouth. There may be mass mortality, especially in young fishes. The infection is also common in sexually matured fish. Initial experiments of ICARCIFRI on cage culture recorded heavy mortality from fungal infections. Presence of heavy load or organic matter in water in form of dissolved

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and particulate organic matter derived from feed, excreta and secreta from fishes, presence of dead and decaying net biofouling organisms, combined with aerobic nature of cages promotes heavy growth of these fungi and triggers heavy fish mortality in cages. Heavy stocking, transportation stress, low water temperature during winter may favour outbreak of the disease. Malachite green, formalin, sodium chloride etc. have been successfully used for control of water mold infection. Fungal gill rot: This condition is caused by the fungus Branchiomyces sp. In this condition, the fungus grows in gill epithelium leading to highly inflamed and corroded gill which can be seen by naked eye. Gills turn yellowish brown, there are hyperplasia followed by degeneration and sloughing off of gill lamellae. Affected fishes are lethargic and gasp for air. This fungus favours higher oxygen load as well as presence of high load of organic matter in water. Presence of excess organic load, bloom, low oxygen level, high stocking density and acidic pH favours the disease outbreak. Epizootic ulcerative syndrome: EUS, caused by the fungus Aphanomyces invadens, caused havoc in fishes across India during 1990s. Subsequently intensity of the disease subsided significantly, although it is still common in Bihar, Jharkhand and NE states having acidic soil. The disease is common during winter months and in benthic fishes. In this condition, large ulcers develop on body trunk and towards the end of body. In severe cases, the fish tail sloughs off. So far, EUS has not been recorded in cage culture.

6. Parasitic diseases in enclosure culture Most of the individual fishes in wild or culture system are infested with at least one parasite in their life, although the load of parasitic infestations may not be heavy with insignificant mortality. However, in cage culture parasites often cause serious damage or mortality due to heavy stocking density that favour easy spread of the pathogen and close proximity of cultured and wild/feral fishes, and favourable environmental condition for the particular parasite. The available literatures about parasitic disease incidence from enclosure culture are scanty and few disease conditions recorded by

ICAR-CIFRI in cage culture of Pangasius are given below: Ich: Ichthyophthiriasis of Ich is possibly the most common parasitic disease recorded in cage culture of Pangasius in India. It is caused by the ciliate Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. In this condition, multiple white salt-like spots or transparent minute vesicles develop in the epidermis layer of skin, starting on head and spreading over whole body, as well as, in gill. In severe cases the epidermis layer become loose and may partly slough off. There may be progressive mortality or sudden mass mortality of fish in cages. Winter and biofouling of cage nets are strongly related to the Ich outbreak, especially in young fishes. Treatment with common salt, formalin or malachite green may reduce loss from mortality. Argulosis: Argulus or fish louse is very common in ponds, and are occasionally seen in cages. Nearly transparent to greenish, dorso-ventrally flattened, oval to round macroscopical lice are seen attached to eye canthus, base of fins and in severe cases over other skin surfaces feeding on skin mucus, flesh and blood and causing skin wounds that are predisposed to bacterial infection and ulcer development. Affected fishes become restless, scratches over nets and other solid supports of cages. Although argulosis is a severe problem in ponds, mass mortality of fish from argulosis in cages has not been recorded so far. Sodium chloride, formalin, organophosphate insecticides are effective in warding-off the infestation. Myxosporean infection: In this condition nearly globular pink/reddish white spots are seen on gill filaments, skin, muscle and nervous system. They cause extensive lesion and death when cysts break. Affected fishes suffer from respiratory problem and grow poorly. Although it causes substantial loss in pond aquaculture, mass mortality may be uncommon in cage culture. The cysts are highly resistant and treatment with chemicals like formalin, acetic acid, potassium permanganate etc. are not very effective.

7. Nutritional diseases: Fishes in enclosure cultures are grossly dependent on artificial feed fed to them. If the feed is not

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judiciously formulated to meet all nutrient requirements of the fish species cultured, this may lead to deficiency of one or more nutrients. The most common nutrient deficiencies that may occur in enclosure cultures, especially in cages are protein-energy deficiency, vitamin C deficiency and calcium-phosphorus deficiency. Protein-energy deficiency: In this case, fishes are given less amount of feed or a feed poor in available nutrients. Feed may be deficient in energy (carbohydrate in most cases), protein and/or fat. For good growth, fishes must be fed sufficient amount of quality feed. In winter, fishes eat less and this may lead to some nutrient deficiency. In nutrient deficiency, fishes grow poorly, will be cachectic with proportionately bigger head. These fishes are very prone to infection and mortality. Vitamin C deficiency: Vitamin C is involved in immunity as well as collagen and bony tissue formation. As such, vitamin C deficiency leads to deformed skeleton and vertebra and fish look bent. Fish also become very prone to infection. Dietary supplementation of vitamin C would improve the condition. Calcium/Phosphorus deficiency: If the feed is not sufficiently supplemented with calcium and phosphorus, Ca and/or P deficiency will start. The affected fishes grow slow and feed conversion efficiency is reduced. There may be excess fat accumulation in cages fishes. Adult fishes may also show thin or broken skull bones. The problem can be overcome by addition of supplemental dicalcium phosphate or monocalcium phosphate in feed.

8. Health management practices in cage culture

yy Fish seeds should be acclimatized to the cage water before their stocking in cage. Gradual acclimatization with cage water and prevailing water temperature may be done by adding more and more amount of cage water in holding tank. yy Prior to stocking in cages, fish seed should be given bath treatment with potassium permanganate @ 2-3 ppm for few minutes. yy Observation of fish during feeding and other times for their movement, feeding, shoaling behaviour, external lesion etc. Any deviation from normalcy should warrant further examination. yy Physical examination of fishes at regular frequency to check strength of fish, sliminess of skin and gill, external lesions, color of gill and any gill lesion or parasite, overall health and growth of fish. yy Periodic cleaning of cage nets that would ensure water exchange and healthy water quality inside the enclosure. Cleaned nets should be air or sun dried before re-use. Few herbivorous fishes may be stocked in cage that would graze upon net periphyton and reduce fouling load. yy Lifting of net and checking for dead fishes. This is essential during disease outbreaks, however, it should be made a practice especially after stocking and during winter months. yy Removal of moribund and dead fishes would prevent disease spread. Disposal of dead fishes outside the water body, i.e., to be buried in land. yy Grading of fishes and stocking of same size fishes. yy Use of quality feed with good FCR.

Prevention is better than cure. However, day-to-day management practices should aim at conserving fish health in cages. This is often done by following some practices given below: Avoid stress to fish. For stocking in cages, fish seeds should be imported from nearest place and long distance transport may be avoided. Proper oxygenation and periodic water exchange is essential during transport of fish seed.

yy Water quality monitoring for conductivity, temperature, salinity (for brackish water or marine cages), ammonia, dissolved oxygen etc. Maintain good water quality. yy Avoid over stocking and over feeding. If there is over-crowding reduce the standing crop. yy Control entrance of wild fishes from natural environment or other water bodies.

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yy Fishes should be given bath treatment with disinfectants before stocking. yy In face of disease outbreak, use of proper drug in recommended dose and for recommended period. yy Advisory of experts from the State department or from research Institutes in face of an outbreak may be sought.

9. Treatment of fish for prophylaxis or therapeutic purpose: In cage culture fishes can be treated for prophylaxis purpose or for treatment of ailing fishes. Whatever may be the case, not only the ill or moribund fishes, all fishes in a cage are treated even in face of an outbreak, with the objective of saving healthy fishes from infection, rather than curing the diseased fishes. It is recommended to use only approved drugs/chemicals permitted by regulatory authorities at standard doses. Fishes can be treated by dip or bath treatment outside the cage, medication through feed, or application of drug in cage proper; the last mentioned method may not be effective since the drug applied would spread/wash out of cage within few minutes of application and effective drug concentration inside the cage would not be attained. Some of the water sanitizers and anti-parasitic chemicals that are commonly used in aquaculture as well as in cage culture are table salt, potassium permanganate, methylene blue, copper sulphate, malachite green, quarternary ammonia compounds, benzylokonium chloride etc. Some of these compounds like benzylokonium chloride are not recommended for use in ponds or open waters and bath treatment using these chemicals are recommended. Benzylokonium chloride (BKC) is used in bath treatment @1-2 ppm for 1 hour. Copper sulphate is used in bath treatment @ 1:2000 conc. Potassium permanganate is used @ 4-5 ppm for 3-5 minutes bath. Potassium permanganate can also be used in culture @ 2-3 ppm in water. Common salt is used in bath treatment @3-4% daily for 30-60 minutes daily for 3-7 days. Malachite

green is effectively used at a conc. of 3-5 ppm for 60 min bath treatment for control of fungal and other infections; however, caution should be taken about impurities and toxic effects of the chemical. Formalin is best recommended for treatment of Ich and other external parasites by bath treatment @ 250 mg formalin /L water for 1 hour or 1:5000 for 20-30 min daily for 3-7 days. During bath treatment use of aerator is recommended. Bacterial diseases can also be controlled by administering antibiotics through feed. Oxytetracycline is administered at the dose 80 mg/ kg fish/day through feed for 10 days. Florfenicol is used in feed @ 10 mg drug/kg fish/day for 10 days. These drugs are not heat resistant and are unstable in extruded pellet feeds; as such they are best mixed/ top dressed with given amount of feed only prior to administration. Minimum 2-3 weeks withdrawal period to be given between drug treatment and marketing of fish for human consumption.

References: Das, B.K. and Mukherjee S.C. 1997. Pathology of Tail and Fin rot diseases in rohu Labeo rohita ( Ham.)(Abst.) Workshop on Development of Intensive Aquaculture in Fresh and saline water in Haryana .PP.23. Dash, S. S., Das, B. K., Pattnaik, P., Samal, S. K., Sahu, S. and Ghosh, S., 2009. Biochemical and serological characterization of Flavobacterium columnare from freshwater fishes of Eastern India. Journal of World Aquaculture Society, 40(2):236-247. Samal, S.K., Das, B. K., Ghosh, S and Sahu, S., 2009 In vitro susceptibility of Pseudomonas sp. isolated from freshwater fish to antimicrobial agents. Indian Journal of Fisheries, 56(3): 227230. B.K.Das, I. Sahu, S.Kumari, M. Sadique and K.K.Nayak, 2014 Phenotyping and whole cell protein profiling of Edwardsiella tarda strains isolated from infected freshwater fishes. Int. J. Cuur. Micro. Appl. Sci. 3(1) 235-247

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Value Addition Options for Deccan Mahseer (Tor khudree) and Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Dr. C.N. Ravishankar* and Dr. J. Bindu *Director, ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin

1. Introduction Globally there is an increasing demand for diversified value added food products. Present market trends are indicative of extensive growth in demand for convenience products processed out of a variety of fish and shell fish. Value addition means “any additional activity that in one way or another changes the nature of a product thus adding to its value at the time of sale”. As far as cold water fishes are concerned value addition is one of the possible approaches to increase its value and market. Currently a number of diversified value added products from fishes are available in the market. One factor responsible for this increase is that there is a good expendable income, education, awareness and consciousness towards hygiene and health, increased emphasis on leisure pursuits etc. There is also a great demand for fish-based products in the ready to eat “convenience” form mainly due to its health benefits. One of the ready to serve product is fish curry in different styles. These products have a shelf life for more than one year when stored at ambient temperature. Smoked fish is consumed only after further cooking either after frying or roasting or as an ingredient in curry preparations to enhance the taste and flavour (Singh et al., 1990). Increasing the salt concentration will inhibit mould growth, and increase the shelf life, but the high salt content in the final product is not readily accepted by consumers. The application of batter and breading to minced fish and fishery products have helped in enhancing demand and value for the low valued fishes. Battering and breading enhance food product appearance and organoleptic characteristics in addition to improving its nutritional value. Coating acts as a moisture barrier,

minimizes moisture loss during frozen storage and reheating (Suderman and Cunningham, 1983). The process of battering and breading increases the mass and cost of the coated product and therefore it is included in the value added products (Joseph, 2003).

2. Value addition in Rainbow trout Rainbow trout is an exotic coldwater species which was introduced in many parts of India. The fish is found inhabiting the Himalayan foothills, Kashmir, upper streams of Western Ghats in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The optimum thermal regime for this species lies in the range of 12–20 °C (Graham, 1949). Trout is a preferred table fish in the U.S. and Europe. In India this species mainly support recreational fishery although recently it has found its way to super markets in metro cities as an exotic food item which has demand among the urban population. Presently trout is considered to be a highly priced fish in India. The fish is marketed mainly as fresh in chilled condition. Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum) is considered as a delicacy and sold as a high-value fish. Products for human consumption come as fresh, smoked, whole, filleted, canned, and frozen trout that are eaten steamed, fried, broiled, boiled, or microwaved and baked. Trout processing wastes can be used for fish meal production or as fertilizer. Trouts are mainly marketed as head-on gutted fish, but the proportion sold as fillets (often boneless) and other value-added products such as smoked trout, trout jerky, pate, and oven-ready products has increased over the last decade (Fornshell, 2002). The fresh fish market is large because the flesh is soft and delicate, white to pink in colour with a mild

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flavour. Food market fish size can be reached in 9 months but ‘pan-sized’ fish, generally 280-400 g, are harvested after 12-18 months. However, optimal harvest size varies globally, in the USA trout are harvested at 450-600 g, in Europe at 1-2 kg, in Canada, Chile, Norway, Sweden and Finland at 3-5 kg (from marine cages). Preferences in meat colour also vary globally with USA preferring white meat, but Europe and other parts of the world preferring pink meat generated from pigment supplements in aquafeed. The study on consumer preferences for trout products by Foltz et al. (1999) indicated that individuals from rural communities showed higher preference for whole trout whereas consumers from urban communities preferred trout fillets. Dasgupta et al. (2000) reported that individuals with an urban background tended to display a higher preference towards frozen trout steaks. Strict guidelines are in place for the regulation of rainbow trout for consumption with respect to food safety. Hygiene and safe transportation of fresh fish are of paramount importance, to ensure that fish are uncontaminated by bacteria, in accordance with food agency directives.

fresh fish can be preserved as whole. Gutting and removal of gills can be done simultaneously to reduce bacterial contamination. After gutting, the carcass should be washed thoroughly before packing in ice. Water for washing and cleaning the fish should be chlorinated to the level of 2 ppm. The protein content of the meat is relatively high when compared to other species. The fat content was low in smaller species whereasit can be as high as 12% depending on the fish, feed and habitat. The yield varies with the size of the fish; the larger the size the better will be the yield. Farmed rainbow trout from the Western Ghats in India have shown an average yield of 40% for skinless fillets from whole fish of size ranging from 250 to 400g. Studies have shown that whole farmed rainbow trout stored in ice in chilled conditions can retain its saleable quality upto 14 days. The fish remained in excellent condition upto six days and can retain high quality upto nine days (Ninan et al., 2011). Since lipids in the fish are relatively stable during chilled storage, oxidative rancidity indices viz., peroxide value and thiobarbituric acid value were poor indicators of quality. In rainbow trout, total volatile base nitrogen is also not an useful parameters to indicate freshness. The sharp decline in protein extractability after 15 days correlates with the decline in quality. Detailed sensory evaluation is the effective and practical method to assess the freshness of chill stored whole un-gutted rainbow trout.

4. Frozen storage

Rainbow trout

3. Handling and chilled storage Rainbow trout should preferably be starved before harvest. The newly caught fish should be gutted, washed and packed in ice to keep them in good condition. Poorly handled fish can be recognized by their sunken eyes, loss of colour and bloom from the skin, and the accumulation of yellow slime on skin and gills. But by adopting good chilling practices,

Rainbow trout, like most fish, can be kept in good condition for a long period by freezing them and holding them in a cold store. Only good quality fish should be used, and they should be washed in chlorinated water and frozen quickly, preferably blast frozen at -40 °C and stored at -20 °C or below in cold store. Gutting may not be necessary prior to freezing if the fish have been starved before capture; the uncut frozen fish may be less prone to rancidity. Polyethylene sleeving for individual fish and waxed cardboard containers are generally effective in reducing drying and oxidation of the frozen product.

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5. Smoked trout

6. Coated trout fillets

The most common form of presentation is as hot smoked, whole gutted trout, which is cooked enough during the hot smoking process is ready for eatingwithout further preparation. It is therefore important that the nature of the product and the storage conditions are such that food poisoning bacteria, particularly Clostridium botulinum, cannot grow in particular, a salt concentration of 3% and a storage temperature of less than 10 °C are sufficient for this purpose. The whole fish is dressed and split open immersed in brine solution and drained. The ratio of brine is three parts to one part of fish by weight. The fish is subjected to an initial fast drying for 60 minutes at 30 oC followed by hotsmoking at 80 oC for 45 minutes at a relative humidity of 50%. The smoke is generated from coconut husk. The final product had a salt content of 3.22 % and a moisture content of 55.89%. The smoked trout is packed and stored in chilled conditions below 4 oC. Vacuum packed smoked trout had a shelf life of four weeks in chilled conditions compared to air packed samples which retained the quality up to one week.

A coated food product is one which is covered with any other food stuff. Normally two types of coatings are in use, batter and breading. Battering and breading enhances the appearance and taste characteristics of an original product and it also enhances the returns to the producer. Skinless fillets obtained from whole trout were cold blanched with 5% salt and 0.1% citric acid for 10 minutes. It was then coated, blast frozen, packed in polythene packs and stored at – 20 oC. This product retained good sensory qualities for twelve months in frozen storage at -20 oC.

Coated trout fillets

7. Mince-based products from trout

Trout in Smoke Kiln

Mince based products developed using trout meat include cutlets and balls. In the case of cutlets, the meat is separated from fish in comminuted form free of bones, skin etc. Fish mince is used for value added products like fish cutlets that are prepared using cooked fish mince, which is mixed with cooked potato, fried onion and species etc. It is then formed into the desired shape, each weighing approx. 40 g. The formed cutlets are battered, breaded and flash fried for 20 seconds and frozen for longer storage. Cutlets are usually packed in thermoformed trays for it to retain its shape. Fish ball from trout meat is prepared by mixing the raw minced meat with corn flour and spices. It is then kneaded into small round shapes and cooked in boiling water. The cooked meat is then drained and further coated in batter and bread crumbs. It can be fried and consumed or stored in the frozen condition after packaging

Smoked trout

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Smoked and canned trout steaks

Sensory evaluation of the canned trout steaks showed that the smoked and canned products had good texture and flavour. Canned product that was blanched, smoked for 2h, dried and canned had the highest rating of which had a mild smoke flavour and firm juicy texture. This product had a salt content of 2.61% and the pH of the meat was 6.02.

Cutlets

9. Value addition in Deccan mahseer

Fish Balls

8. Smoked and canned trout Canned trout is a very well accepted product in Western countries in ready-to-eat form. Trout was smoked and canned under different conditions to study the optimum acceptability conditions. The whole fish was cleaned, split open and washed to prepare steaks for canning. The steaks were cold blanched in 10% brine solution containing 0.5% citric acid for 10 minutes. The samples after blanching were divided into five lots. One lot was control which was canned without smoking and drying. Another lot was canned after sun drying for two hours. The remaining three lots were canned after smoking and drying. Cold smoking was done at 45 oC for the three lots at 1 hour, two hours and three hours after which, these samples were dried at 45 oC for one hour in controlled conditions prior to canning. Approximately 120g was finger packed in TFS cans. The products were heat processed for 54 minutes at 121 oC. Refined groundnut oil was used as the medium. Approximately 10 kg whole fish was used for the preparation of smoked and canned trout. 21 cans were prepared with an average weight of 185g per can. The final product yield was about 39% of the whole fish.

Mahseers are large scaled carps belonging to the family Cyprinidae and genus Tor. Mahseers are found inhabiting freshwater lakes and rivers where temperatures are normally below 25 °C. These fishes have been described by (Langer et al.) as the “King of the Indian aquatic systems” Seven major types of Mahseers are found in the Indian waters. They are benthopelagic in nature and are found in the cool, fast flowing, streams and rivers where the temperatures do not exceed normally 30 °C. (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). They are priced highly as food and sport fish, mainly due to their large size, durability and taste after capture. They are sturdy and ferocious and form a candidate species for angling and other recreational fishing. However they are a declining species due to the overfishing, degradation of the water bodies, building of dams and barracks and other anthropogenic activities (Ogale 2002) Kulkarni (1981) warned that Mahseer, the king of Indian rivers, is in danger and stressed the need for its conservation. Pioneering work on the breeding and artificial propagation of Mahseers have been done by the The Tata Power Company Ltd., Lonavala, Maharashtra. Mahseers are of a considerable importance to the local fishermen in North India and tribal communities because of their large size, hardy texture, high commercial value and longer shelf life Kumar (2000). Mahseers have thick scales and tough meat, and thus the quality degradation is slower than other fish species and that makes it a preferable species for the local communities both for consumption and sale.

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seed paste was a special ingredient. Fish pieces were coated with a batter and fried before addition to the curry. About 100 g curry was then vacuum packed in indigenously manufactured retortable pouches having a three layer configuration of 12.5 m polyester / 12.5m aluminum foil / 80m cast polypropylene of size 18 cm x 11cm. and thermal processed. Fo value of 8.6 and cook value of 70 min. were found to be optimum for processing Punjabi style Mahseer curry in retortable pouches. The product was evaluated sensorily and biochemically every month for a period of one year and found to be acceptable.

Deccan mahseer

10. Ready to eat fish curry in retortable pouches Two different styles of curry namely Punjabhi style and Mughalai style was prepared using Deccan Mahseer. Since the meat is sturdy and tough the fish was suitable for the preparation of the curry. Fresh Mahseer (Tor khudree) weighing about 1 kg caught from the upper region of the Chalakudy river in Kerala. The fish was put in ice in the ratio 1:1 and brought to the laboratory in insulated containers. It was then filleted skinless and the fillets were cut into small pieces and used for the Mughalai curry preparation. The curry was prepared as per the standard recipes and the fish pieces were fried and used in the curry preparation. About 40 g fried fish and 60g gravy was filled into retort pouches of size 18 cm x 11cm and vacuum packed and sealed. These pouches were further processed in an overpressure autoclave. The recommended Fo value for fish and fish products ranges from 5-20 (Frott and Lewis 1994). The fish curry was processed to Fo value of 8.5 and heat penetration characteristics determined. The results show that Fo value of 8.5 and cook value of 76 minutes were found to be optimum for processing Mughalai style Mahseer curry in retortable pouch. The product remained in good condition in both sensory and biochemical aspects even after a storage period of 12 months at room temperature. Punjabhi style curry was prepared using fresh Mahseer. For the preparation of this curry pumpkin

Punjabhi style

Mughalai curry

11. Smoked mahseer fillets during chilled storage (2±1 °C) Smoking is one of the oldest methods of preservation of fish and it combines the effects of salting, drying, heating and smoke components. Preservation

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is mainly due to the deposition of the smoke components produced by the thermal degradation of sawdust or wood. Skinless fillets were then used for smoking. The filleting yield average was 33% from that of the whole fish. The Mahseer fillets were washed and brined before smoking at 65 °C for 1 h. 100 g smoked fish was packed into pouches made of 12m-polyester laminated with 300 gauge low-density polyethylene and kept in chilled condition (2± 1 °C). The fishes were acceptable up to two months of storage for both air and vacuum packed samples. Sensory analysis of the smoked fish showed that the fish was organoleptically acceptable and had a shelf life of two months of storage. However, samples packed in air developed fungus after 2 months of storage.

batter mix and then rolled in bread crumbs and flash fried for 20 sec. The flash fried cutlets were vacuum packed in high impact polypropylene trays and stored at -20 °C. Frozen cutlets were sensorilly acceptable for a period of 12 months. No rancidity or off flavour developed during frozen storage. The biochemical parameters indicated that the product could be stored for a longer period. The Mahseer mince was found suitable for preparation of cutlets and can be used for other minced based products like samosa, rolls, fish balls etc. Deccan Mahseer meat is an excellent source of raw material for developing ready to serve and ready to cook products. The meat is comparable to any other fresh water fishes like carps and has good keeping quality. Ready to serve fish curry in Mughalai and Punjabi style had a shelf life of one year at ambient temperature storage. Vacuum packed smoked Mahseer fillets could be kept at 2± 1 °C for 2 months. Frozen cutlets packed in HIPP trays had a shelf life of 12 months at -20 °C.

Smoked mahseer

12. Frozen cutlets from mahseer meat Battered and breaded products offer a value added convenience since the process of coating with batter and breadcrumbs increases the bulk of the product thereby reducing the cost element. The pickup of coating on any product can be increased either by adjusting the viscosity of batter or by repeating the process of battering and breading. The production of battered and breaded fish products involves about seven steps. They are portioning/forming, pre-dusting, battering, breading, pre-frying, freezing and, packaging and cold storage. Mahseer cutlets were prepared by using meat remaining on the frames and backbone after filleting the fish. The meat was cooked and made free of scales, skin or pieces of bones. This meat was then mixed with condiments and ingredients. Cutlets were formed into the desired round shape and each piece weighed approx. 40 g. The formed cutlets were battered in

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Mahseer cutlets


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13. Conclusion Mahseer meat is an excellent source of raw material for developing ready to serve and ready to cook products. The meat is comparable to any other fresh water fishes like carps and has good keeping quality. With conservation practices underway and availability of the resources, these species can be fully utilized for product diversification. Trout farming is currently emerging as a commercially viable venture in many parts of India, particularly in the states bordering the Himalayas. Good handling practices will ensure the quality of this coldwater delicacy at the consumer level. Value addition to this species can open up new market avenues, particularly with the advent of organized retail marketing in the country.

References Dasgupta, S. Foltz, J. and Jacobsen, B. (2000) - Trout steaks: Consumer perceptions of a new food item, J. Food Distribution Res. , November 2000, pp 37-48. Foltz, J., Dasgupta, S. and. Devadoss, S. (1999) Consumer perceptions of trout as a food item, Intl Food & Agribusiness Manag. Rev. 2(1): 83101. Fornshell, G (2002) - Rainbow Trout — Challenges and Solutions, Rev. Fish. Sc., CRC Press, 10(3&4): 545–557.

Graham, J.M (1949) - Some effects of temperature and oxygen on metabolism of the speckled trout (S. frontinalis), Can. J. Res. 27(D): 270-288. Joseph, A.C. (2003) - Coated fish products for export and domestic markets. In: Seafood safety. Surendran. P.K. (Ed.). Society of Fisheries Technologists, Cochin, India., pp: 1-12 Kulkarni, C,V. (1981) - Mahseer in danger, needs protection,Cheetal, 123(4): 24-28. Kumar, K.(2000) - Conservation and development of Golden mahseer (Tor putitora Ham.) in Himachal waters, Fishing Chime. 20(9): 26-27. Langer, R.K., Ogale, S.N. and Ayyappan, S. (2001) - Mahseer in Indian subcontinent A bibliography, Central Institute of Fishery Education, Mumbai. 109 p. Ogale, S.N. (2002) - Mahseer ranching, In: Riverine and Reservoir Fisheries of India (Boopendranath, M.R., Meenakumari, B., Joseph, J., Sankar, T.V., Pravin, P. and Edwin, L. Eds.) p. 225-229. Suderman,D.R. (1983) - Use of batters and breadings on food products: A review, In: Batter and breading technology (Suderman, D.R. and Cunningham, F.E. Eds.). Chichestie, England: Elis Horwood Ltd., Publishers., pp: 1-13. Talwar, P.K. and Jhingran, A.G. (1991) - Inland Fisheries of India and Adjacent Countries. Vol. I and II. Oxford and I B H Publication Co. Calcutta, p. 1-1158.

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Current Scenario of Freshwater Pearl Culture Technology in India J. K. Sundaray and Shailesh Saurabh ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar-751 002, Odisha, India

1. Introduction Pearl culture is a billion dollar industry and one of the world’s largest aquaculture activities in terms of value. In nature pearls are formed when an irritant like sand grain or parasite is swept into the pearl mollusks and is lodged within it and gets coated by micro layers of nacre, a shining substance made of 80-90% CaCO3. Realizing the scope and importance of freshwater pearl culture, the ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFA), Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar, India has developed a base technology of growing pearls in freshwater environments. The Institute has also taken the lead to disseminate the technology of freshwater pearl culture to the fish farming communities, entrepreneurs, state government officials, researchers and students of the country.

2. Human Resource Development in Freshwater Pearl Farming ICAR-CIFA is actively working on standardization, development and evaluation of freshwater pearl culture technology since early ’90, and has made remarkable progress on the same besides transferring the technical know-how to the aqua farmers and entrepreneurs. For example, two dedicated scientists and one technical officer are constantly being engaged in research and technology transfer of the same for entrepreneurship development, and imparted more than 13 trainings during last five years (2012-17) where more than 175 entrepreneurs are being trained on these aspects exclusively. From them, a good number of stakeholders are working on the technology development. Moreover, user friendly manual in Hindi, Odia and English has been developed to cater the need of different categories of aspirants. Apart from that leaflet in

Marathi, Odia, Hindi and Bengali on Designer pearl technology are also prepared to reach more farmers. Further, documentary film on ‘Moti Ke Kheti’ was prepared by DD Kissan Delhi Doordharsan National Channel, New Delhi in 2016-17 with the help of ICAR-CIFA scientists and the film is well appreciated by different section of people of India. The documentary film is uploaded in you-tube by the DD Kissan with an aim to provide the technical know-how of pearl technology to greater numbers of people around the world. Further, a large number of farmers/stakeholders are also showing interest for learning the technology. The Institute is trying to impart training very often with its limited manpower to cater to the needs of a country like India. Just to mention, we have trained stakeholders from 20 states with a hope they would serve as our ambassador to spread the technology.

3. Current Status of Freshwater Pearl Production Pearls are precious gem and also have aesthetic importance and their market price will be influenced by consumer demands. Pearl markets and prices are also influenced by levels of production and supply, quality control and market perceptions of particular products (Torry and Sheung, 2008). At present freshwater pearl production is mainly dominated by China which has not only a very long history of pearl culture, but is also the largest freshwater pearl producer in the world, with a total culture area of over 57,000 ha (Liu et al., 2009). The annual output of freshwater pearl production is over 1800 tonnes, which accounts for 95% of world production (Li et al., 2009; Liu et al., 2013). China has more than hundred forty mussel species, however; only H. cumingii and Cristaria plicata

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have been successfully utilized for freshwater pearl production (Yan et al., 2009). This is due to better pearl production quality and well developed hatchery technology for this species. Moreover, the Chinese freshwater pearl production has significantly improved in shape, size and surface quality with substantive advancement in grafting and culture techniques. They are available in a variety of sizes ranging from 2 mm to over 10 mm and in an interesting variety of shapes such as round, oval, drop button and baroque and in rich colours such as orange and purple, often with a metallic luster (Akamatsu et al., 2001). Hua and Neves (2007) reported that purple, pink and lavender colour pearl are most desirable and fetches high prices in the international market. The low price of Chinese freshwater pearl has gained them an important advantage in the mass market and international gem shows are often awash in them (Torry and Sheung, 2008). Chinese freshwater pearl is generally made up of 100% nacre because they are mostly practicing non-nucleated implantation using a tiny piece of mantle tissue. In recent years, Chinese also use another species of mussel, H. schlegelii, introduced from Japan and Coin-bead nucleation techniques. This nucleation method involves implanting a coin-shaped bead and tissue piece at first generation and often only a spherical bead at the second generation. The process produces the pearls called fireballs, other baroque shapes, keshis, coin pearls and rounds and near rounds (Fiske and Shepherd, 2007). They are also utilizing hybrid mussel (H. cumingii X H. schlegelii) for producing superior quality of freshwater pearl (Xie et al., 2006). In India commercial production of freshwater pearls is very meager. However, the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture regularly organizes training programs for the farmers, entrepreneurs and researchers on various aspects of pearl farming. Some of the farmers from different parts of the country after getting training have also started their pearl farming venture. In recent years Tisya Aquaculture field School, Balasore, Odisha, Tulsi Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Deen Dayal University, Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh, Garwa Pearl farm, Rajasthan have come up with good harvest

of pearls produced in their own firm. At present in India the major demand is for the round pearl and designer pearl of different shapes such as goddess Laxmi, Holy cross, Ganesha and different fancy shapes etc. Nowadays freshwater pearl farming also provides employment and income generation to many aspirants.

4. State of Art Technology of Freshwater Pearl Production The Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture has developed the state of art technology for freshwater pearl production from freshwater mussels. The basic steps in freshwater pearl production are given below: yy Collection of mussels yy Pre-operative conditioning yy Surgical implantation of graft tissue and biocompatible nuclei yy Post-operative care of mussels yy Pond culture of implanted mussels yy Harvest of mussels and pearls yy Value addition of pearls

Collection of mussels Mussels are hand-picked and collected from the natural resources with water for short distance transportation, preferably in the early hours of the morning by skilled workers. The size criteria of the mussels are to be taken care of during collection. It has been observed that the pearl mussels of the size 8-12 cm in shell length and weight of 50 g and above are suitable for pearl culture operations.

Pre-operative conditioning Pre-operative conditioning ensures proper relaxation of adductor muscles and keeps metabolic rate of animal in reduced state to get the best possible result during the surgical implantation process. Prior to surgery the indigenous pearl mussels collected from the freshwater bodies are subjected to pre-operative conditioning for 24 to 48 hours. The mussels are stocked in aged tap water at a density of one mussel L-1 of water. Supplementation of algal feed is restricted during this period. This aspect

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is important in view of the limited application of narcotizing procedures as followed in marine pearl culture operation.

Surgical Implantations Depending on the variety of pearl products targeted the surgery is performed in the internal structure of pearl mussel. For production of designer pearl or half round pearl mantle cavity insertion techniques is usually used to do. Unattached non-nucleated small rice pearls and small nucleated round pearls are produced by using the mantle tissue implantation method whereas unattached regular round pearl is produced by the gonadal implantation method. Details of these techniques are discussed below.

Mantle cavity Implantation Mantle cavity insertion method is a simple surgical technique, involving less risk and monitoring is easy. Prior to surgery, the indigenous freshwater mussel of 8-12 cm shell length is collected. They are carefully opened by using speculum and nucleus of desired size and shape is inserted into the mantle cavity and is further pushed deep to avoid rejection. Care should be taken that the implanted nuclei do not interfere with the opening and closing of the pearl mussel’s shell and have enough space to allow the coating of nacreous substances. Apart from that the size of the nucleus should be compatible to the mussel so that it can stay inside the mussel body throughout the culture period. Two implantations can be made per mussel targeting two half-round or designer shell attached pearl internationally popular as the mabe pearls. Designer pearl in the form of pendant or half round pearl in the form of ring has become increasing fashionable, in recent years, particularly among young generation.

strip is then cut into appropriate sized graft pieces (~2 mm x 2 mm) and implanted alone or along with a small nucleus (~2 mm dia.) into the mantle tissue of the recipient mussel. Grafting is done on both the sides of the mantle lobes. It is worth to mention that mantle tissue used in the grafting process is a vital factor in determining the appearance and quality of the cultured pearl production. Apart from that water quality, soil characteristic, availability of minerals in the water body, pond management and surgical implantation process also affects the quality of pearl production. The number of implantations can vary between 2-8 depending upon the size and mantle thickness of the recipient mussel. Small 2 to 3 mm sized pearls of round (nucleated) oval and baroque (non-nucleated) shaped are harvested at the end of the culture period.

Gonadal method of Implantation In the gonadal method of implantation, the recipient mussels are carefully opened once the live graft tissues (~2 to 3 mm2) are processed for implantation. A small incision is made by means of a special knife placed at the other end of the graft needle, under the outer membrane of the gonad and a live graft piece along with the nucleus (3 mm to 6 mm) is pushed into it. The critical factor is ensuring that the outer surface of the graft tissue must be in contact with the nucleus. If the graft is not in contact with the nucleus, the pearl-sac will not form around it and only a non-nucleated irregular shape pearl may result. Further, care should also be taken not to cut deep into the gonadal tissue. Single implantation is ideal per mussels and at the end of the culture period regular round pearls are harvested. It is a cumbersome procedure and hence requires special skill, attention and patience.

Mantle Tissue Implantation

5. Post-operative Care

In mantle tissue method the mussels before surgery are segregated into two groups, the mussels to be operated upon the ‘operations mussels’ or ‘recipient mussels’ and those to be sacrificed, the ‘cell mussels’ or the ‘donor mussels’. The live donor mussel is sacrificed and the pallial mantle ribbon of approximately 0.5 cm wide and 7.0 cm long is collected on a pre-cleaned moist wooden board. The

Pearl mussels are kept in the post-operative care unit after surgery for different observations. It is a vital step in freshwater pearl culture operation, which is required for the implanted mussels to recoup. Immediately after surgery restricted movement of the mussel is essential for the retention of the implanted graft and nucleus. Thus, after implantation, the mussels are kept in

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post operation care units. The implanted mussels are placed at the rate of 2 mussels per bag (30 cm x 13 cm; mesh size 1.5 – 3.0 cm) with the ventral side up position. They are subjected to careful observations for a period of 5-10 days. Sufficient care is taken to allow free opening and closing of the shell valves for respiration. Treatment of the water in post-operative care units with broad spectrum antibiotic, Chloramphenicol, at the rate of 1-2 ppm as a prophylactic measure is beneficial for the survival and wound healing of the implanted mussels. The mussels under post-operative care are not fed initially, however on the second or third day onwards they are supplemented with cultured green algae. If there is any mortality occurs during intensive care in implanted mussels then it should be removed immediately from the system.

The physico-chemical parameters and water level of the ponds are monitored throughout the culture period.

6. Pond Culture of Implanted Mussels

The value of a pearl is decided by its quality: shape, size, colour, luster, surface clarity, lack of flaws and orientation. Being a product of biological origin, an individual variation is bound to occur in each and every cultured pearl. Even under the highest possible man management, the quality of cultured pearls cannot be controlled absolutely, but can be considerably improved by selecting healthy mussels and appropriate care in handling, implantation, pond management and by following physical, chemical and biological means of quality improvements.

In India freshwater mussel implantation is carried out throughout the year, except during the peak summer months (May to June) to minimize postoperative mussel mortality and rejection of graft and biocompatible nucleus beads. Traditional carp culture ponds (2.5 m deep) with clay-soil base and slightly alkaline waters are suitable for pearl culture operations (Janakiram, 1997). Ponds without aquatic macrophytes and algal blooms such as Microcystis and Euglena are ideal for pearl culture farming. The ponds are provided with bamboo poles as rafts for hanging the implanted pearl mussels. The implanted mussels at a density of 50,000 to 75,000/ ha are placed in nylon bags (30 cm x 13 cm; mesh size 1.5 – 3.0 cm) @ 2 mussels per bag and reared. Careful pond management particularly in terms of natural food production and management of water quality through liming or fertilization is utmost important during the culture period as it affects the quality and quantity of pearl production. A regular health checkup of the cultured mussels must be done at fortnight intervals as there are many chances of mortality of operated mussels due to internal incision, less availability of food and parasitic infection. Further, the mussels should be taken off from the net bags, checked and cleaned before replacing.

7. Harvest of Pearls The pond culture of operated mussels varies from eight to eighteen months depending upon the type of surgery performed, the size and number of nuclei implanted, the health of the mussels and the condition of the pond environment. While pearls can be removed from the mantle tissue of gonad of live mussels but in case of mantle cavity the mussels are sacrificed to obtain designer pearls. The harvested pearls are cleaned and further processed before marketing.

8. Value Addition of Freshwater Pearl

9. Conclusions At present, the ICAR- Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture has made significant progress in areas such as identification of newer biocompatible nucleus, surgical implantation technique, pre and post-operative care of mussels, minimizing graft and nucleus rejection, pond culture of implanted mussels and value addition of pearl. Efforts are also being taken to develop low cost technology for the farmers by utilizing simple handy instruments in pearl farming. Recently research work has also been initiated for glochidial larvae culture in vivo and in vitro. Concerted attention is also being paid to disseminate the technology of freshwater pearl culture by regularly conducting training program to the farmers, entrepreneurs, state government officials, researchers and students

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of the country in order to develop technical expertise and popularization of freshwater pearl culture technology to the newer height. However, the major constraints for successful adoption of pearl farming are limited availability of trained manpower for performing precise implantation and lack of proper marketing networks. Commercial application of this skillful technology requires a

well-planned strategy at regional and farm levels and entrepreneurial development and involvement. To conclude, freshwater pearl culture has the significant economic, social and environment impact. It is further expected that this pearl farming technology will be one of the most important integral component of freshwater aquaculture in India in future.

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Upland Fisheries and Aquaculture – Issues and Desired Interventions Dilip Kumar Aquaculture, Fisheries and Rural Development Adviser, International Civil Service FAO of the UN, Retired Ex Director / VC, ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai, India E-mail – [email protected]

1. Context The undulating terrains of the Northern and North Eastern uplands of India are rich in various natural resources which provide food, nutrition, economic security and livelihoods to millions of its inhabitants, especially the rural poor communities. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy of this region, accounting for nearly half of income and engaging over one third of the working population. Many upland farmers belong to ethnic groups living in remote areas and face hardships whilst they continue traditional farming practices. The economy in the upland areas is reasonably diversified around land and livestock is reared for meeting subsistence requirements and hardly for commercial purposes. Uplands provide a range of ecosystem services, ranging from the provision of clean water and food such as cereals, fruits, livestock, fish; timber, fibre and recreational opportunities. Despite, majority of upland communities are amongst the most disadvantaged and poorer section of the Indian society and most vulnerable to the risks of disasters and impacts of climate change. Majority of these communities are poor or near-poor, landless or land-poor, entirely reliant on agriculture and nontimber forest products. Due to loss and degradation of forest and wildlife resources, increasing incidences and frequency of climate change mediated natural disasters and land degradation in some areas, farmers are faced with serious challenges of preventing poverty, malnutrition and under-subsistence living conditions. This is further aggravated by the distance from both the input and output markets, while the local markets remain small due to thinly spread population and economy and fragmented communities. Poverty alleviation among rural

households and villages in upland areas of India and several south and southeast Asian countries remains a major challenge. The upland communities are looking for pathways to improve their livelihoods and cash income and as a safety net in times of need such as health, education, weddings, building a new house etc. While looking for additional sources of livelihoods and diversification of income and food production opportunities for these communities fisheries, aquaculture and livestock come to the fore front of thought. Fisheries and aquaculture has the potential to providing additional and dependable cash flow and improving food, nutrition and economic status in many areas.

Potential of Aquatic Resources for Fisheries and Aquaculture The uplands are rich in aquatic resources which are an integral component of livelihoods of many upland communities. Fisheries and aquaculture can play an important role in upland areas by providing food, employment and income, playing a role in poverty reduction programmes and giving an alternative to shifting cultivation. An increasing population can benefit from the numerous aquaculture opportunities and it is expected that further inquiries and research will be undertaken to explore the potential for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in the region. The upland / coldwater fishery resources of India are quite vast and varied. It spreads from northwestern to north-eastern Himalayan region and some parts of Western Ghats, encompassing about a dozen Indian States. They include rivers and streams, natural lakes and reservoirs and a good number of native and exotic fish species. Taking into consideration the diverse natural resource-

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base and wide climatic diversity it has adequate potential for providing an important source of livelihoods and animal protein rich food for the upland communities, where other income earning opportunities are relatively limited and difficult to practice. Looking into the gap between present actual fish yields and the fish production potential there is a vast scope and potential for improving fish production in the upland areas by bringing natural Himalayan lakes, located at different altitudes, under scientific management for fishery enhancement. Significant scope also exists for promoting culture of trout and other suitable fish species by the use of improved aquaculture technologies and modern techniques including molecular and biotechnological interventions, selective breeding programme for improvement of strains both of exotic and indigenous species of commercial value, cold water fish health management for the containment of diseases, etc. There is also a great potential for sport fishery development and ecotourism in hilly regions. The potential upland / cold water areas of India are located along the long stretch of Himalayas of around 2500 km from west to east and 200-400 km from north to south comprising an area of 594,400 sq. km. These area have different types of upland/ coldwater resources in the form of upland streams, rivers, high and low altitudinal lakes and reservoirs. Indian upland fishery waters include rivers (8253 km), natural lakes (21900 ha) and reservoirs (29700 ha). The capture fisheries of these waters is poorly developed mainly due to low primary productivity of resources, slow growth rate of fish, inefficient fishing practices and inaccessibility of fishing sites. The data on resource and fish catch statistics also lacks proper documentation due to diffused nature of resources and small quantity of catch per fisher. Whatever little attention has been paid in the past for development of fisheries of upland resources were restricted to promoting sport fishery with focus on brown trout and very little on suitable native species.

Priority Issues The upland communities face various problems including the following over-arching issues:

yy Extreme vulnerability of agriculture and its allied activities due to frequent low-intensity hazards, climate variability and climate change. This leads to significant crop losses for most households, reducing income and food security. yy Loss and degradation of natural resources, affecting agriculture and other allied vocations, reducing communities’ coping capacity, and reducing economic opportunities from nontimber forest products. yy Low capacity to adapt to climate change and increasing exposure to disasters. This is due to limited access to information and knowledge on climate change and disaster risk management amongst local government agencies and communities.

Besides there are certain specific issues which are laid hereunder. yy Poor Water and Land Use: In recent years the increase in land use as a result of intensive agriculture and urbanisation in watersheds has resulted in an increased input of organic waste into rivers and lakes leading to eutrophication of some lakes, and pollution of streams. Lakes of Nainital and Bhimtal in Kumaon, and Wular and Dal lakes in Kashmir are examples of such an impact. The shallowness of the lake has become a hindrance for navigation, including recreational boating. The changes have also adversely affected fish production and the growth of lotus and Trapa plants, and the number of game birds has been declining. In the Kumaon, region the growing demands of local residents to meet the challenge of increasing tourism and other development programmes have also increased pressure. Though the government works with farmers, fishers, power and irrigation authorities to make better use of limited water resources, and to put in place the best agricultural practices that protect our fish and fisheries resources years of poor water and land use across the upland areas have left significant scars, which requires inter-agency and cross-sectoral cooperative endeavour to heal such scars.

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yy Invasive exotics: The impact of the introduction of exotic species on endemic coldwater fish species in the Himalayan uplands is quite significant. The introduction of common carp may have adversely affected the endemic schizothoracines and mahseers. In Lake Dal in Kashmir, Kumaon lakes in Uttar Pradesh, and the reservoirs Gobindsagar and Pong in Himachal Pradesh the introduced common carp and accidentally introduced silver carp have become the dominant fishery. While the decline in schizothoracines is obvious, a modest increase in mahseer has been recorded in Gobindsagar reservoir. yy Indiscriminate and destructive fishing: The practice of indiscriminate and destructive fishing practices are quite common across the hill fisheries resources leading to disastrous consequences with regard to depletion of fisheries and biodiversity. yy Damming of rivers: Existing dams are welldocumented barriers to fish migration, and threats of new and unnecessary dams exist all across our upland territory. Damming of rivers and eutrophication of lakes have probably been the major negative impacts on native fishery of endemic species like schizothoracines, rather than the presence of exotics - common carp and silver carp. yy Irresponsible logging: Endemic snow trouts and other endemic cold water species and exotic trout and salmon depend on cold, clean water for survival, and trees in our forested lands do a remarkable job of keeping water habitable for our prized fish. Unfortunately, logging operations around streams have not always been conducted with the fish resources in mind. Streamside buffers have been eliminated, making it possible for streams to suffer from sedimentation and erosion, making spawning and rearing difficult. yy Irresponsible quarrying: Threats from poorlyconceived quarrying are two-fold. First, the headwater streams are impacted in one fashion or another. Second, these activities have disastrous impacts on natural habitats, breeding and nursing grounds of fishes.

yy Roads and Development: Constructing roads into hilly terrains and bringing development into quality habitat obviously takes a toll on prized fisheries resources. Roads contribute silt and sediment, and industrial development introduces threats of pollution and degradation to valuable habitats. yy Poor access to information and services: The mountain areas are mostly landlocked and relatively more inaccessible. As a result the upland communities have poor access to information, improved technology, market, institutional credit and services like extension, health care and education. Besides they also remain deprived of the benefits of various development and welfare programmes and projects. yy Climate change: Climate change is happening and is more pronounced in upland areas which are facing increasing incidences of climate change mediated natural disasters such as spells of drought and intense rains, flooding, land slide and earthquakes. This requires both mitigation and adaptive measures. Mitigation is the implementation of actions that will reduce the amount of human induced climate change in the future by, for example, reducing emissions of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Whilst adaptation is the application of coping strategies to our actions in order to live with the effects and consequences of climate change. Compared to plain land, upland communities have less low adaptive capacity mainly because of poverty, poor communication, limited access to information, services and technologies, etc. Climate change is happening and it is even accelerating. What we are seeing today are only the early signs of climate change and the result of past greenhouse gas emissions. Europe needs a wake-up call to prevent that climate change takes catastrophic dimensions later this century

Needed Interventions With due considerations to the analysis of the situation, measures to minimise the negative consequences and harnessing the potential of fisheries and aquaculture resources for enhancing

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sustainable livelihood opportunities to the upland communities the following development intervention measures are suggested.

quality seed especially common carp and the indigenous mahseers and schizothoracines. In some lakes, where it would not lead to an increase in the rate of eutrophication, a pilot scale cage culture could be tested and introduced.

1. As fisheries play an important role in providing food and income to people in upland areas, they must be integrated into the rural development and water resource development initiatives. A better integration of fisheries development within the overall ecosystem and rural development framework with full consideration of ecological, social and economic values of fisheries in relation to agriculture, livestock, conservation and hydropower generation, is essential if fisheries is to become a more productive and sustainable source of food in the region and play its effective role in poverty alleviation in mountain countries.

6. High mountain glacial lakes, with their oligotrophic character and low water temperatures, appear to have little chance for becoming productive fishery water bodies. Where deemed realistic, stocks of schizothoracines and other species could be maintained through stocking. Lakes holding already self-sustaining stocks of of mahseers, schizothoracines and other species should be carefully managed to avoid overfishing. Some of these water bodies should be selected as fish sanctuaries.

2. There is the need of better understanding of socioeconomic conditions and livelihoods of upland and more specifically those of fisher communities. This would assist in formulating better management interventions with the objective of improving livelihoods of fishers and farmers in mountain areas.

7. Information system encompassing fisheries and aquaculture resources and resource users communities are critical. This would form a decision support system using GIS and remote sensing tools and would be helpful not only for resource assessment but also for aquaculture development in the hills.

3. Promotion of inter-sectoral cooperation and coordination between fishery and other sectors like livestock, horticulture, rural development and water resources management

8. Ornamental fish culture as small-scale enterprises in the hills can provide an alternative source of employment especially to women.

4. Greater attention is required to prevent indiscriminate fishing and destructive fishing practices and taking measures like closed seasons and mesh size limits. Environmental aspects, especially rehabilitation of watersheds to prevent excessive siltation of rivers and lakes, and prevention of pollution to reduce the rapid eutrophication of some lakes and reservoirs, also need to be urgently addressed. Community mobilisation to participate in enforcement of fish acts and regulations, protection and conservation of fish habitats and biodiversity is imperative. This would require capacity building of state fisheries departments and their personnel in extension including social mobilisation. 5. Enhancement of lake and reservoir fish stocks will require adequate and timely production of

9. There is the need for more research, training and education into Himalayan aquatic ecosystems, especially the biology and behaviour of coldwater fish stocks, migration patterns and environmental impacts, for strengthening of fisheries data collection and dissemination, and for improved access to, analysis and synthesis of the existing information and experience. 10. There is need for research in participation with the farmers which would be more relevant to their needs, capacity and acceptability. 11. Climate change impacts will be integrative which need to be assessed within the existing set of economic, environmental and social pressures (often termed socio-ecological systems). The effects of climate change and the adaptation measures required will need tailoring to local circumstances. Local uptake of adaptation strategies may require strong

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leadership and knowledge transfer as well as community action. The value of case studies and discussion networks would allow the development of strong, resilient and relevant adaptation strategies. 12. To put a greater emphasis on the sustainable use of upland fisheries and aquaculture resources the need for policy development, that recognises the social and economic importance of aquatic resources and supports poor aquatic resource users, especially for

Conclusions Better understanding of the livelihood systems, and the requirements for a sustainable natural resources management strategy for the upland areas would contribute to increasing the resilience of the communities to flood, drought and other

natural disasters. Strengthening local institutions, conserving natural resources, and promoting environmentally sound food farming practices are the three most important policies to be promoted within the watershed. The strategy for the sustainable management of land and water resources could be used as policy tool to enhance the integrated management of the mountain regions and mainly to increase the sustainability of the livelihood systems. Decentralization and local livelihood sustainability would both be enhanced by giving a bigger role to community organizations in natural resource management. Livelihood change and livelihood sustainability of households in the upland in response to changes in the natural resource management context are desired to be monitored and documented which may provide valuable insights for the future course of development planning and policy reforms.

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Coldwater Fisheries and Aquaculture in India S .D. Tripathi* Former Director/Vice-Chancellor, Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai *Present address: 701, Ankita, SVP Nagar, MHADA Four Bungalows, Versova, Andheri (W) Mumbai 400053

1. Aquatic resources The coldwater fisheries resources of India located in the Himalayan belt stretching for about 2,500 km from west to east and about 200 to 400 km wide from south to north cover the States of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in the western Himalayan region, Uttarakhand in the Central and Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur Mizoram and Tripura in the eastern Himalayan region with Sikkim lying north of West Bengal between Nepal on the west and Bhutan on the east. The region is rich in water resources as 19 rivers – Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra and its tributaries – covering about 10,000 km drain the entire region. Besides freshwater lakes in central Himalayas (365 ha), there are 18,150 ha of natural lakes between 1,500-2,000 m asl, 400 ha of freshwater and 2,340 ha of brackish-water lakes 3,000 m asl in addition to 265, 000 ha of reservoirs. Though insignificant in terms of area a n d biodiversity as compared to the Himalayan region, yet the limited peninsular resources located in the Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu) and Munnar High Ranges (Kerala) play an important role. There is no definition as such as to what is Cold Water but waters below 200 C are considered as cold waters. Fishes inhabiting cold waters are adapted to living and moving in cold, fast flowing and oxygenrich waters and have, therefore, undergone both morphological and anatomical changes. Those that can tolerate a broad range of temperature are categorised as eurythermal such as mahseers (100300 C), snow trouts (50 to 250 C) while others like the exotic trouts with a narrow (40 to 200 C) tolerance limit are steno-thermal. Despite the harsh climatic and ecological conditions, the region is rich in

specialised fish fauna with 258 species belonging to 21 families and 76 genera, some of these being highly valued for sport while others as ornamental and still others for its food value. Considering the need for utilising the available resource for enhancing fish production, tourism and meeting the nutritional requirements of the hill people besides generating additional employment, the ICAR established the National Research Centre on Coldwater Fisheries (NRCCWF) on 24th September 1987, which was later upgraded as the Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research (DCFR) during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Despite all constraints in terms of physical and lab facilities, strength of scientific staff and funds besides others, the Centre has made tremendous progress in the short span of 30 years, being, perhaps, the youngest fisheries institute in the country, located in one far remote corner in the northwest with a mandate to serve not only the vast expanse of the Himalayas up to the eastern-most part of the country but also the limited resources in Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well. Its contributions in terms of mapping the cold water fishery resources and development of breeding and rearing technologies for promoting the culture of important indigenous and exotic cold water species deserves to be noted. In addition, it has also brought about a revolution in terms of developing human resource through various training and extension activities. Suffice it to say that there are over 1000 farmers practicing the culture of rainbow trout in different parts of the Himalayan region. Let it be noted that it is the only Centre in the country catering to the needs of cold water fisheries and hill aquaculture and as such shoulders a heavy responsibility.

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I do not propose to dwell on the achievements which are already known by now but like to make a few suggestions for furthering the work of DCFR and help bring about marked changes on the Cold Water Fisheries Map of India provided these are worth it.

2. The Way Forward A. North-East Centre for Skill Development Since the north-eastern States are now going ahead with mahseer and katli seed production and culture besides the indigenous hill carps, it would be worthwhile to establish a centre with at least six expert technicians in breeding and seed production, ecology including water quality and biology, aquaculture and engineering for helping to set up hatcheries, construct ponds, raceways and polyhouses, etc. The Centre may be headed by a senior Scientist having overall experience of various aspects to plan and organise relevant and needbased skill development programs on a continuing basis to help enhance seed and fish production to meet the nutrition requirements of the people and their demand for fish in the region and to raise the farmers’ income. There is strong justification for the establishment of this Centre as the region is far away from the headquarters at Bhimtal involving not only a heavy expenditure on travel and transport of equipment but also disturbs the on-going routine work at the headquarters by frequent movement of the staff. While the Centre should be centrally located, preference should be accorded to the region where tremendous possibilities of expansion and extension exist besides the facilities and cooperation made available by the State for establishing infrastructure facilities, especially for genetic selection of N. hexagonolepis.

B. Genetic Improvement of Mahseers Based on the facilities and expertise available, genetic selection of Tor putitora at Bhimtal and that of Neolissocheilus hexagonolepis at the centre to be established in the eastern sector should be initiated since both the species are commercially highly valuable – being in great demand, fetching a high

price. Disease component should be a part of the selection program. Since genetic characterization of chocolate mahseer populations has already been done, selection should be the next step. How nice it would be to use selectively bred, improved ‘chocolate’ in the hatcheries now established in Manipur and Nagaland! It would be equally worthwhile to initiate the selection program on one of the Labeo spp., preferably Labeo pangusia, which is so highly relished. If growth enhancement would be the prime consideration, perhaps L. dero could be the next choice. The expertise available in the country at CIFA could be taken advantage of for initial planning.

C. Polyculture and Integrated Farming A significant step has been achieved in aquaculture development in terms of captive breeding and larval rearing of mahseers and establishment of a ‘mini’ zero water exchange hatchery for coldwater fishes, especially for minor carps and rainbow trout for regular seed supply. Since grass carp has been found to perform well in carp polyculture, it should form a basic component constituting around 50% with other indigenous carps – L dero, L. boggut, L. dyocheilus and L. pangusia forming the rest with about 10% -15% each. Three densities – 3000, 4500 and 6000/ha – need be tried initially with an eye to harvest, at least, twice within the rearing period of 8 months. Detailed records regarding species-wise size, weight, numbers stocked and harvested should be kept to work out proper proportions and density based on growth, survival and total production/ ha per period. Integration with agriculture and horticulture are within the reach of farmers as these traditional crops do not require much expertise but focus should be on the use of improved varieties. However, wherever paddy is grown, the fields constitute a rich resource as water is available in plenty, Abatani (Arunachal) and Manipur are the best examples. It is necessary to ban silver carp and common carp lest these two species once again play havoc in these pristine waters. Have we not yet learnt any lessons from the fate meted out to the Dal and Wular Lakes and also Gobindsagar?

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While a number of farmers have taken up carp culture in mid-Himalayan region, what is significant is that about 300 trout growers in Sikkim and 350 farmers in Himachal Pradesh have taken up trout production following the scientific methodology being disseminated by DCFR.

D. Ranching Mahseers Now that both tor and putitor mahseers have been successfully bred and large scale fingerling production has been possible, it is time that suitable stretches of rivers that once had a thriving population of these species – or even those that are otherwise valuable as anglers’ or tourists’ paradise – are rehabilitated again. Fingerlings could be ranched in confinement, in cages, in areas that are safe from pollution, poaching and also free from severe floods. This gives the fingerlings an opportunity to get acclimatised in the water where they would be finally released. Under an NFDB-funded Project on “Mahseer gene banking and conservation”, the CIFE, Mumbai, in collaboration with Friends of Nature Association (FONA), took up a program on ranching mahseer in Indrayani river near Talegaon in Maharashtra procuring the fry/fingerlings of T. khudree and T putitora from Tata Power Company Ltd and stocked 45,000 fingerlings (average weight 20 to 60 gm) between 2012 to 2014. T putitora fingerlings were also reared to brood stock and bred in the nearby hatchery and the locally produced seed was also raised in cages and finally stocked in the river. The Society has reported that the program is yielding good results.

E. Breeding and Seed Production of Ornamental Fishes The North-east is a hotspot of indigenous ornamentals which are presently being subjected to uncontrolled exploitation impacting its abundance. If this “illegal” activity is not checked without further loss of time, the country will lose a rich resource of which we are proud today. There is a need to put a blanket ban on export of the wild caught fish. It is necessary that hatcheries are set up and breeding and rearing programs are initiated particularly on species having the maximum demand and value and Best Management Practices followed.

Pengba (Osteobrama belangeri), the State fish of Manipur, is highly relished and its population in Loktak lake has considerably declined. The fish has been bred, seed produced and culture practices established. A large hatchery or a few small hatcheries need be established in Manipur and besides stocking the lake, pond culture practiced so that the fish is not only made available to Manipuris but also exported outside the State. NFDB has provided immense funding support through a project for development of infrastructure facilities to enable captive breeding of two highly valued ornamentals – Channa aurantimaculata and Mystus dibrugarensis – to Dibrugarh University. The project is just completed and the results are anxiously awaited as its success would bring about a revolution in ornamental trade. This besides, NFDB has also funded various training programmes on breeding and culture of ornamentals, skill development, integrated fish farming, etc through KVKs on a large scale. The results should be evaluated for formulating further development programs.

F. Running Water Fish Culture Systems – Open and Closed Raceways for trout constitute a running water system that requires intelligent planning, designing and construction and is expensive to operate vis-àvis an indigenous system – the JHORA – designed, constructed and operated at no expense by an ordinary farmer. The ‘Jhoras’ are commonly found in northern West Bengal in Darjeeling district and also Tripura. These are sort of small ponds or depressions which are either fed by water falls in the vicinity or springs. Since the water is continually running, there is no problem of pollution and oxygen depletion, only feed is needed. Mahseers are raised here. In one place, however, the jhora was receiving the washings from pigsty and the fish were growing well. Closed running water system is rather a complicated structure involving water engineers, chemists and biologists – it is truly closed as the water once taken doesn’t go out – it just circulates within the system. This system is popularly known as Closed Recirculatory Aquaculture System (CRAS) is

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expensive to build, maintain and operate being a heavy consumer of electricity. It, however, facilitates intensive fish culture but with intensification come pollution and disease. Pollution due to faecal matter and unconsumed feed and metabolites such as ammonia and carbon dioxide being toxic to fish need to be removed. This is taken care of by installing a Mechanical Filter to remove suspended solids; a Biological Filter to convert ammonia into nitrites and finally nitrates respectively through Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria; a Trickling Filter for removal of carbon dioxide, N2 and H2S; an Oxygenator to enrich the water with dissolved oxygen; and, a UV Filter for disinfecting the water. Feed is the most important component which should be fully balanced to meet the nutritional requirements of the fish and also acceptable in the form it is given. The advantages of CRAS are that it economises on both space and water and facilitates intensive production indoors under controlled conditions including temperature, when required, as in case of brown or rainbow trout. Since India is taking a stride into utilizing renewable energy resources, the system should be developed to run on solar energy or, maybe wind, wherever a reliable 365x24 supply is available.

G. Aquaponics - An Innovative Approach A system one step ahead of CRAS, it is a far more economic system in terms of water and space as it produces two crops under one roof – rather an arranged marriage between ‘RAS’ and ‘hydroponics’ as if “made for each other”, the latter being a system that grows plants just with nutrient rich water but without soil. It has a few variants: (1) Flood and drain hydroponics, (ii) Deep-water Raft hydroponics, (3) Media-based or Grow-bed system, and (4) Nutrient Film Hydroponic Technique (NFHT). Developed in the 1970s at the University of Virgin Islands, it has now become a world famous system with the largest farms in USA and Dubai.

The fish are fed on a balanced diet to grow and be healthy. Commercially available pelleted feeds in different sizes to suit the different stages of the growing fish are used. Over feeding is avoided. While aquaponics is now known the world over, India lagged behind. It was in

2012, when eight students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, arrived in Kerala to establish an Aquaponics Demonstration Centre in St. Alberts College and were supported by Dr Ajith Thomas John, Associate Professor, Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries. Later the State Government, Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) also joined to support the Nanniode Aquaponics Research and Development Centre (NARDC) in its mission to (i) grow more food locally, sustainably and organically; (ii) empower the future growing generation; and (iii) help bring up a successful aquaponics growing community in India. This Centre (Palakkad Dist) has organised National Training Workshops on ‘Aquaponics Design and Technology’ in local languages, besides Hindi and English. NARDC has developed a village scale commercial aquaponics farm facility in 550 m2 besides village commercial farms at other centres where amaranthus, okra, pig weed (punarnava, Boerhavia diffusa), drumstick (Moringa oleifera) besides ash gourd or winter melon (12 kg), snake gourd (Trichosanthes cucumerina) (1.5 kg) and Kani vellari (golden cucumber) – a fruit that has a premium price during Vishu festival are being produced. Punarjani Resorts is promoting and practicing natural organic production targeting an annual output of 5000 kg fish and 7500 kg of high value vegetables. The latest interesting feature is the incorporation of high value pearlspot (karimeen, Etroplus suratesis), the State fish of Kerala in the aquaponics system with a production of 200 kg fish and 1,000 kg vegetables. The State Government of Kerala has come forward to propagate Aquaponics. A large Aquaponics project, a FIRST of its kind in a government institution in India, is located at the College of Agriculture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellanikkara, Thrissur. This besides, world’s first Seabass Aquaponics Nursery has been installed at Nanniode, where demonstration programmes are being organized by MPEDA, which is procuring and supplying the fry from its hatchery (Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture, RGCA) located at Thoduvai, Tamilnadu, and also

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the pelleted feed. MPEDA also organised a seminar on ‘Aquaponics and Diversification in Aquaculture’. The system is now becoming popular and has been established in Telangana (Gundedu Commercial Aquaponics in Karimnagar), West Bengal (Urbagrow Aquaponcs, Kolkata), Maharashtra (Vigyan Ashram, Pune), Rajasthan (Aquaponics India, Jaipur), Chandigarh (India Aquaponics) while Goa too would soon be on the Aquaponics map of India. Aquaponics provides a solution with only 5-10% of the water requirement and use of barren, uncultivated land, unsuitable for worthwhile purpose to provide the highest quality of food, employment to hundreds, business development centres and marketing channels. There is no reason why India cannot have large commercial farms producing tons and tons of fish and vegetables with a huge population ready to absorb it. An alternative to looming climate change with solar and wind energy as a Gift of God would change the Indian scene. Aquaponics should be adopted on a large scale in the north-eastern States where aquarium fishes could be bred in hatcheries and reared in Aquaponic Farms – using solar energy or waste heat from Power Plants. Aquaponics cannot be developed to its greatest heights without close collaboration between horticulturists, water dynamic engineers, microbiologists, aquaculturists and fish biologists, water chemists and biochemists, Here is a Vision to make in India and export organic produce to Europe and other countries!

H. Sport Fisheries & Eco-Tourism Presently, no data is available on catch by anglers from different rivers, streams, lakes, etc. It is necessary to have creel surveys to assess the catch and effort involved. A proforma should be provided to each angler with columns for all relevant details to be filled in and returned to the State Department to enable it to analyse and take necessary steps for management. It is necessary to establish a Unit on Sport Fisheries and Eco-tourism at DCFR to work on all aspects of angling (techniques, tackle and lure) and fish behaviour. Fishing is a skilled job and

as such a part of courses on Skill Development. It would be worthwhile if aquashops are established at important tourist centres to cater to the need of anglers. It would be worthwhile for India to be a member of the International Eco-tourism Society (TIES) and to sponsor anglers to participate in competitions held in different locations in the world. Further, TIES has collaborative arrangements with George Washington University for a Certificate Course on Sustainable Tourism Management that provides the basics on a variety of eco-tourism and sustainable tourism topics. Maybe, those interested to work in this sector would find it useful.

I. Polyhouses and Utilization of Waste Energy Polyhouses have been in use for quite some time for raising horticulture crops where it is safe from untimely rain or other weather problems. Further, the temperature inside is always 30-50 C higher than outside. This provides a very congenial environment for rearing the seed as well as raising brood stock. In Hungary, waste heat from the Power Plant is utilised for raising the temperature in the Hatchery and the seed produced, this leads to raising the fish to the marketable size in two years as against three years in the open system. There are Power Plants a galore in the north-east and the waste heat could be made use of.

J. Education and Training While credit courses on ‘Aquaponics’ are provided in the Universities in USA, why not in India where there is a perennial shortage of water for raising the crops. It is imperative that our universities introduce courses and collaborate with regional research institutions to work on plant varieties that have been and are being improved everywhere for increased production. An outline of the syllabus for a 3-credit course may be prepared and finalized in consultation with ace anglers and also compared with that available in US and UK before starting it at an Institute where infrastructure facilities are either available or could be easily made available.

K. A New Institute If we have institutes on Hotel Management, Physical

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Education, Business Management, Mountaineering, why not one for Sport Fisheries and Eco-tourism? This would be as helpful in developing the sector as is the case with other institutes. It could be either in public (ICAR/NFDB) or private sector. It would then bring out the economic importance of Sport Fisheries in a big way. It should be enough to note that trout fisheries contributes about 50% to the State’s revenue in Jammu & Kashmir while the Assam Bhorali Angling and Conservation Association (ABACA) provided direct year round employment to 37 persons and indirectly created jobs equivalent to 12,370 man-days besides earning Rs 25 lakhs which was used for maintenance Eco Camp. Does it not call for the attention of the concerned authorities to give the sector the dues that it deserves?

3. Epilogue There are very many other areas such as nutrition and disease that are equally important especially in culture systems and deserve as great an attention as any other. Feeds have to be balanced, cheap and based on locally available ingredients and for all the different stages and different species of fish. It is necessary to have feed mills not far away from hatcheries as that would require both time and expenses on hauling making the feed costly. The less said about the diseases the better. Diseases are as prevalent in cold water hatcheries and farms as in warm water. Whether trout or mahseer, one needs to be careful about the diseases as any mortality severely affects production and farm economics. The only way to escape the wrath of climate change is to control the emission of CHGs and prevent the temperature from rising above the present level.

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Promotion of Coldwater Fisheries with Applied Biotechnology Research in India A. S. Ninawe Department of Biotechnology, Block-II, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003 E-mail: ninawe@ gmail.com

1. Introduction Fishery is an important sector of food production, providing nutritional security as a sustainable livelihood source with diversified food basket. It contributes to the agricultural exports and supporting the livelihood of about 14 million people by engaging them in different activities. The sector is representing with vast water resources ranging from seas to coldwater hill streams. The significant resources in terms of upland rivers/streams, high and low altitudes of natural lakes in addition to man-made reservoirs existing both in Himalayan regions and Western Ghats. These resources are bestowed with vast and varied coldwater/hill fishery resources which are spread over the Himalayan and peninsular regions as upland rivers, streams, high and low altitude natural lakes and reservoirs. It harbours rich fish diversity comprising large populations of indigenous and exotic, cultivable and non-cultivable fish species.

2. Fisheries Sector in Country’s GDP The fishery sector constitutes about 6.3% of the global fish production and it contributes to 1.1% of GDP and 5.15% of agricultural GDP. The total India’s fish production is 10.07 million metric tonnes, presently its 65% production comes from aquaculture sector and the rest is from capture fisheries. There is paradigm shift for increasing the production and productivity from inland sector and aquaculture. The coldwater fish resources are also likely to contribute to the production increase in fisheries sector with decision support system using GIS and remote sensing, helpful not only for resource assessment but also for aquaculture development. At present the contribution from

coldwater fisheries is negligible although it falls under high value and low–volume category. The coldwater fishery supports more than 10% of the global biodiversity in terms of fish and shellfish species contributing to sustainable fish production. The hill states is contributing about 1.5% of the total inland fish production, in which reservoirs are the major contributors. The average annual growth rate of coldwater fish production is 2.5%. Himachal Pradesh (with a higher growth rate of 8.3%) and Jammu & Kashmir are the leading states in coldwater aquaculture and states like Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh have scope of rapid development.

3. Coldwater Fisheries Coldwater fish production has to be increased to sustain the livelihood of the people by undertaking multidisciplinary research for water conservation with adoption of suitable culture models. There are few cultivable species in coldwater region to be taken up on species diversification through aquaculture breeding techniques for Tor putitora, Schizothorax richardsonii, Semiplotus semiplotus, Neolissocheilus hexagonolepis (chocolate mahseer) and minor carps (Labeo dyocheilus and Labeo dero). Rainbow trout has good potential for domestic consumption as well as foreign export and is considered as a low volume high value commodity in India need promotion. This can provide an excellent opportunity for augmenting livelihood security of the people residing in the region and create opportunities for earning revenues through adoption of sustainable fish farming practices. Therefore, aquaculture of coldwater fisheries plays an important economic activity in upland region for livelihood security and ecotourism for

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assessment and management of coldwater fishery resources. There is need for development in the region for technologies suitable to hill aquaculture and formulating strategies for holistic growth of the sector. The conservation of gene pool and its augmentation in location specific region can enhance the fishery resources and productivity with need based technologies. ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research (DCFR), Uttarakhand is addressing the challenges on augmentation of fish production through scientifically proven technological interventions, optimal utilisation of water resources based on innovations and developed strategies for diversified aquaculture systems and allied enterprises. Climatic changes may aggravate fish disease outbreaks in coldwater fishes for which molecular diagnostic kits and vaccines are being developed. The emphasis is also given on expansion of high value fish for sustainable aquaculture for livelihood and nutritional security. Emphasis on aquaculture, nutrition, disease management, breed improvement, genetics and digitalization of fishery resources, development of culture techniques in candidate coldwater species and dissemination of technological know-how to the stakeholders in hilly region is being promoted. To boost the sector creation of human resource development through education and extension programme are also strengthened. The use of modern techniques such as molecular and biotechnological interventions, selective breeding programme for improvement of strains both of exotic and indigenous species, coldwater fish health, management of disease burden now become imperative. Further, there is need for developing sensitive, effective and user friendly diagnostic tests to enable the fish farmers in the diagnosis of fish diseases. Also the development of effective vaccines would help in prevention and control of fish pathogens. To strengthen the coldwater sector, the following research priorities need attention: yy Genetic improvement by selective breeding brings trait improvement in aquaculture technologies in coldwater species. The development of genome maps and markers

would help in precision breeding and targeted trait improvement through marker assisted selection. yy Studies on gene silencing, immune-augmentation with the help of immunostimulants, novel nutraceuticals and prophylactics, formulation of chemical and herbal remedial, nano-particle mediated drug delivery. This should be targeted for delivery of drugs, vaccines and nutrients for treatment in aquaculture system, fish health management, animal breeding. yy The documentation of fish genetic resources at genus level is limited to few species for which capability and infrastructure need to be developed for large-scale genomic exploration and generation of genomic information on comparative genomics and their phylogeny. The efforts on digitalization and inventorisation may enable the identification of climate resilient strains of fish. yy Bioremediation of lakes and reservoirs required to restore the water bodies that have been polluted and eutrophicated. Metagenomic studies would help in identifying prospective environmental bio-markers and to investigate interactions with host fish in natural coldwater habitats. yy Climate change and shortage of natural resources are the two major long term challenges need to be address for disaster management to cope up with the climate driven changes for coldwater habitat, fish biodiversity and aquaculture production. yy To conserve the native fish biodiversity vital role in developing breeding protocol and surrogate brood stock technology for the potential endemic species that can lead to productivity enhancement through ranching programmes. To sustain the coldwater fishery resources there is need for adoption of integrated approach for better monitoring of biodiversity addressing the vast potential for enhancing fish production in hilly region with scientific management and adoption of modern techniques.

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Potential and Innovative Strategies for the Development of Coldwater Aquaculture in India J.R. Dhanze1 and Rani Dhanze2 Consultant, CoE, FAB, 2Professor, FRM, College of Fisheries, CAU, Lembucherra, Agartala, Tripura(W)-799210 1

1. Introduction: The Himalayan Ecosystem is considered to be as one of the most fragile habitat of endemic gene pool owing to the ever increasing anthropogenic intervention and the climate change. However, most of the hill states of the country are endowed with rich diversity of aquatic and biotic resources, which needs judicious and scientific exploitations for diversification of fish based farm practices for sustainability, so as to mitigate the problem of demand and supply of quality food particularly the availability of adequate animal protein. Generally the fish is considered as one of the most important component of farm produce for the nutritional security elsewhere in the country. But in NorthEast under the existing scenario, the fish is not for the nutritional security but for the food security in as much as the 95% of the total population are fish eaters. Thus it is imperative to enhance the cold water fish production in the hills and mountainous regions of all the states by identifying the location specific endemic species, so as to mitigate the area specific problem of food security. There is a lot of potential to increase the fish production in as much as immense availability of water such as glacier fed perennial streams, groundwater springs, hydroelectric reservoirs, lakes and rain fed tributaries etc.(Fig. 1-3), which can suitably be harnessed into fish biomass. Aquaculture integrating with conventional agricultural practices has immense potential for rationalizing natural resources to the social and environmental demand, especially in the pursuit of integrated watershed management as holistic approach. Managing the fragile ecosystem of the mountainous region with respect to watersheds, through defined principles and established techniques will certainly stabilize

the farming area, channel flow, aquatic environment, biodiversity and overall productivity of the region for sustained prosperity. In this pursuit, the approach may pave the way for enhanced farming system production and aquatic productivity from the natural waters. For this most important input for cold water aquaculture is the harnessing of runoff water specially in the undulating topography where enormous potential of natural resource are available but so far no sincere and scientific efforts have been made to harness the run of water particularly for aquaculture. Based on the working exposure of 45 years on the hill integrated farming system, authors have endeavored to highlight some of the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of this venture in the fore going text for the benefit of the stake holders in the region, exemplified by a case study of Rainbow trout farming in Himachal Pradesh and Inventorisation of fish faunal resources in the Northeastern states.

2. Strengths The water resources in the hills state are enormous comprising of seasonal rivulets and perennial rivers originating from the snow covered glaciers, which can judicially be harnessed for multipurpose use in farming system. The annual rain fall, which ranges between 1325 mm to 2548mm is optimally adequate for the luxuriant growth of biomass in the foothills of entire Himalayan region, which intern provide a sound base for recycling of organics in the farming system. Further, the thick canopy of primary forest and undergrowth acts as a cushion to prevent the instant runoff and direct the rain water to percolate deep into the soil, which acts as perennial resource and the thick vegetation check the excessive evaporation.

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Fig. 1, 2: Alpine glaciers of J & K and Himachal Pradesh

Fig. 3, 4: Coldwater resources of mid-hill region of Arunachal Pradesh & H.P.

Fig. 5, 6: Pristine cold water of Sikim

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A suitable technology for harnessing the water would ensure the sustainable aquaculture in hills and also help to improve the livelihood, health as well as economic status of the people by promoting the trout culture. Trout constitute one of the most important coldwater commercial and game fisheries all over the world. In European countries intensive trout farming has been considered as an economically productive venture (Stevenson, 1980). Denmark alone produced about 15,000 tonnes of trout per year in early seventies (Edward, 1978). In 2005, the term ‘maximum allowable biomass (MAB)’ was introduced and limits the highest annual production to 65 tons per 1,000 m3 licensed volume (Bergheim, A., 2012). Norway is alone one of the leading country and has reached at its highest in trout farming, whereas global production is 8, 78,702 tonnes in 2012 and 8, 14, 068 tonnes in 2013. The farmed produced trout in Norway is 74,583tonnes in 2012. In India, the history of trout culture dates back to 1900 when the eyed ova of brown trout were transplanted independently in the Ooty hill and Kashmir (Sehgal, 1974). The history of subsequent transplantation and successful establishment of trout farms in various place of the country has been reviewed by Sehgal (1974). As such, there does not seem to be any significant breakthrough in the development of commercial trout farming in the country. In Himachal Pradesh, the practice of trout culture in vogue was confined to the production of swimup-fries in five hatcheries namely Barot, Patlikuhl, Chirgaon (Dam wary), Sangla and Holi in Mandi, Kullu, Shimla, Kinnaur and Chamba districts respectively. The swim-up-fries raised in these hatcheries were stocked every year in the River Uhl, Beas, Pabar, Bespa and Ravi mainly to encourage sport fishery but there does not seem to be any significant correlation between the stocking rate and recovery data. However, with the establishment of Indo-Norwegian trout farm at Patlikuhl in Dist. Kulu three decades back there has been a sea change by adopting scientific good management practices to produce grow out table fish in all the Govt. farms and also disseminating the technology to

the farmers. Consequently, some commercial trout farming has been introduced in the farmer’s field, but still there are some hick ups, perhaps because of lack of disseminations of technical know-how for its management, nutrition, disease control and marketing. There has been a general feeling that rainbow trout cannot survive below 1500m altitude as such no efforts have been made to explore some more suitable places for trout culture in the state and the activities remained restricted only to those sites at higher altitude where the trout was transplanted decades back. Age-old conventional practice of feeding slaughterhouse based wet diet to the brood stock is not economical for commercial trout farming. The present communication is aimed at to discuss the potentials, innovative strategies and constraints of trout fishery in Himachal Pradesh based on the findings of research carried out at rainbow trout farm Palampur (1120 msl) and biological performance of different stages of rainbow trout fed on different formulations of pelleted diet. Only the salient features of the research projects are being interpreted here, the detailed results on each investigation are available in published paper elsewhere(Dhanze and Dhanze, 1997, 2002).

3. Methodology Trials were conducted in two types of ponds i.e. earthen pond and concrete tanks( Fig. 5,6), so as to have a comparative data on the survivability and growth performance of rainbow trout from fries stage to table size fish. As such the water quality in terms of dissolved oxygen (DO), concentration of hydrogen ions (pH) were monitored weekly and temperature daily to determine the effect of these parameters on growth, survivability, and breeding of different stages of rainbow trout. The different formulation of feed with varied levels of protein and energy with some growth promoters were tried to study the performance in terms of gain in weight, efficiency of feed utilization and protein efficiency ratio. These experiments were carried out in three replicates of each experiment in both types of habitat. The ingredients used in different feed formulae are summarised and discussed. The feeding was done twice a day that is between 9

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hours and 17 hours for first four weeks followed by two hours interval during the subsequent period of two months (Fig.7,8).

Fig. 7: Cemented Raceway

Fig. 8: Earthen Ponds

4. Results and Discussions The physicochemical parameter during the study period of one year range as :temperature4.2 to 22.40c and 3 to 20.20c, pH 6.65 to 8.8 and 6.5 to 8.6, dissolved oxygen 5.6 to 11.5mg/l and 6.1 to 11.7mg/l in cemented tank and in earthen pond respectively.It is seen that different physicochemical parameters in both types of habitatvaried though the fluctuation is not too high. Experiments on the survival percentage of rainbow trout fries were conducted simultaneously in both types of environment. In terms of average

gain in weight seemed to be better in cemented tank in as much as there is an incremental gain provided adequate of 6.5g and 3.12g respectively after five months. As such it is also clear that rearing of fries of rainbow trout is possible at lower altitude (i.e.below 1200m) provided adequate quantity and quality of water. These findings are in conformity with the view of Chandrasekharan and Rao (1979). The biological performance of six months old fingerlings fed on different levels of protein diets revealed that the higher protein diet seemed to have a predominant influence on their growth performance. Average gain in weight of the experimental fingerlings during the first month were 3.0, 0.29, 1.42 and 1.33g in treatment D1, D2, D3 and D4 and their respective protein efficiency ratio (PER) were 1.29, 0.29, 1.13 and 0.93. The growth response during the 2nd month of trial was 9.56, 2.0, 2.36 and 4.15g under above-mentioned treatments and their respective PER values were 8.89, 0.65, 0.49 and 0.62. The cumulative gain in weight and PER’s during the total period of two months were 12.63, 2.33,3.37 and 6.0g and 0.96, 0.55, 0.54 and 0.69, respectively in experiments D1 to D4. The overall trend is highly suggestive that wet diet D1 has shown not only best growth increment but also the highest protein efficiency ratio. Out of the pelleted diets, experimental diet D4 having CP to the level of 52.06 per cent gave the best response and is next to wet diet. As trout are reported to require higher level of energy during the second year of their life (Braekkanet al. 1971) an experiment was carried out to test the performance of trout yearlings on diets containing almost same level of protein but variable amount of fat energy. Analysis of the results in terms of gain in live weight, EFU and PER showed that varying levels of fat energy had no positive influence on the growth rate of yearlings. Similarly, the commercial animal growth promoters such as “Poultry Farmore” and “Iodine” were also tried to enhance the growth of yearlings but no significant response was recorded. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the level of animal protein plays a vital role in the growth of rainbow trout, which is in conformity with findings of earlier workers. Edwards (1978) remarked, “the digestive systems of salmonids are naturally equipped to handle foods consisting largely of protein and their ability to

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utilize fat and carbohydrate is limited”. Therefore, it would be imperative to evaluate the growth performance of fingerlings fed on conventional wet (meat based) diets vs. pelleted diet prepared from cheaper source of animal protein supplying maximum amounts of essential amino acids. Low cost feed formulation of pelleted diet: The age old practice of raising rainbow trout fed on slaughterhouse waste in Himachal Pradesh was not economically feasible in-as-much as the cost of slaughterhouse waste is very high. Studies on the comparative performance of one year old fingerlings fed on fish-meal based pelleted diet versus meat based diet were conducted simultaneously in the both the habitat and the results are summarised and on analysis of results, it is seen that initially during the first two months the performance of meat based (D1) pelleted diet was better in terms of average gain in live weight and efficiency of feed utilization (EFU) as compared to the fishmeal based (D2) diet. However, after the completion of experiment, the difference in average gain in weight was only four grams in respect of two diets (D1vs. D2), the difference of one gram per month gain for the commercial farming of trout does not seem to be of any significance in the light of cost benefit ratio. Keeping in view the production cost of two diets i.e. D1and D2, it is concluded that D2 (fishmeal based) diet is decidedly better and economical as compared to D1(meat based) diet for the commercial rainbow trout farming in Himachal Pradesh. The input and output ratio analysis concludes that the conventional practice of trout farming in Himachal Pradesh by feeding slaughterhouse waste is highly uneconomical in as much as the production cost of one Kilo live weight of trout comes to the tune of Rs. 171.90. However, if the conventional feed is replaced by good quality fishmeal based pelleted diet, the same cost can be reduces to Rs. 71.80 per Kilo live weight of trout (based on the price indices of 1996). The ingredients of fishmeal based diet found best and economical consisting of sterilized quality fishmeal 50% + wheat bran 30% + groundnut oil cake 15% + wheat flour 5%+ dicalcium phosphate 1% + supplevit-M 0.5%. Based on these findings, the following recommendations are suggested for the development of commercial

trout culture and optimum utilization of the existing coldwater resource in the country.

5. Recommendations of the case study 1. There exists a rich diversity of cold-water resources such as snow fed and spring fed stream in mid-hills and foothills of the country (Dhanze and Dhanze, 1997). The highest temperature of these water bodies remain within the tolerance limit of rainbow trout, hence the altitude of a particular place should not be the only criteria for the selection of sites for establishment of trout farm. As such some more potential sites at lower elevation other than the traditional sites in the higher region may be explored for rainbow trout farming in the State. If the source of water supply in snow fed streams is contaminated, the supply should be regulated through natural and biological filters to get rid of heavy load of silt and organic effluents in the run-off water from the catchment area, which can cause heavy mortality particularly during monsoon season. 2. Decades old brood stock of rainbow trout in various hatcheries needs to be replaced periodically by some new strain or to adopt a strict selective breeding policy. Because of the indiscriminate and repeated inbreeding the existing brood stock in the Hatchery may lead to genetically degraded stock. As a result, wide range heterogeneity is ought to be observed among the fingerlings of same age groups. 3. Prevailing practice of releasing swim-upfries in the streams should be discontinued as maximum mortality occurs during the nursing of fries to fingerlings even under the super intensive controlled environment. Swim-upfries are more prone to environmental stresses. Therefore, it would be essential to rear the fries in the hatcheries up to fingerling stage before stocking them into the streams. 4. Over and indiscriminate stocking of trout fries/ fingerlings in the natural water bodies should be avoided, as it would lead to depletion of the indigenous fish germplasm. However, intensive trout farming in the confined/captive water may be encouraged.

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5. Adequate provision of pelleted feed should be made to replace conventional practice of feeding slaughter house waste/meat based diet by fishmeal based pelleted diet to ensure the economical viability of intensive trout farming in the farmers field.

6. Culture of potential endemic fish species

3. Labeo dyocheilus (McClelland) Boalla for the state of Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mezoram and Arunachal Pradesh. 4. Tor putitora (Hamilton), Golden Mahseer, for all the hill state 5. Tor tor (Hamilton), Tor mahseer, for all the hill state 6. Osteobram belangari (Val.), Pengba for the state of Manipur.

Besides, high valued trout culture in the coldwater regime it would be most appropriate to select the endemic fish species for culture system at pilot scale. In this context, under the Centre of Excellence project on Fisheries and Aquaculture Biotechnology for Northeast, we have endeavoured to conduct extensive survey of the fish faunal resources of North-eastern states. As a result 287 species have been identified out of which the following thirteen species have been considered as commercially important candidate species for culture system in the upland region (Fig.9). The criteria for selection are based on their abundance, habitat preference, public preference and biological parameters.

7. Neolissochilus hexagonolepis (McCl.), Choclate Mahseer for the state of Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mezoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

1. Bangana dero (Ham.), Kalabansh, for the state of Tripura, Assam, Arunachal, Sikkim and Manipur.

12. Schizothorax richardsonii (Gray), Snow trout for all the hill state.

8. Neolissochilus hexastichus (McCl.), Choclate Mahseer for the state of Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mezoram and Arunachal Pradesh. 9. Neolissochilus spinulosus (McCl.), Choclate Mahseer for the state of Meghalaya, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. 10. Neolissochilus stracheyi (Day.), Burmese Boka for the Manipur state. 11. Semiplotus semiplotus(McCl.), Assamese kingfish for the foothills of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

2. Bangana devdevi (Hora), Kalabansh, for the state of Manipur.

13. Schizothoraichthys progestus (McCl.), for J& K, Uttrakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

Schizothorax richardsoni

Neolisochilus hexagonolepis

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Semiplotus semiplotus

Osteobrama belangari

Bangana dero

Tor putitora

Fig.9. Potential endemic species of NE Region for diversification of aquaculture and enhancement of livelihood in location specific areas of the region

it be Centre or State Govt. Research Institution, SAUs or CAUs etc.)

7. Overall Strategies: For the promotion and expansion of trout culture in the vast untapped upland area of our country, it would perhaps be pertinent to adopt the priortised strategies under mission mode as outlined hereunder: 1. Infrastructure such as Coldwater harvesting, accessibility to the site, civil construction of building for hatchery, brood bank farm, feed mills etc. needs to be undertaken by the public sector.

4. 2nd Tier: Production of Swim up fries and fingerlings may be undertaken either by the public undertaking Institutions or private players (progressive farmers) as per the availability of adequate quality water and other Infrastructure. 5. 3rd Tier: Production of grow out or Table fish should solely be with the private entrepreneurs i.e. farmers.

2. Trout culture being a very intricate and complex venture as compared to warm water aquaculture needs to be planed under four tier system so as to ensure the availability of critical inputs such as quality seed, quality feed and health management for sustainable production.

6. 4th Tier: The surplus stock of fingerlings may be used for the ranching of well-defined trout waters for the promotion of ecotourism, indiscriminate stocking of fries and fingerlings in the virgin natural water may be avoided to conserve the endemic fauna.

3. 1st. Tier: Maintenance of genetically improved brood stock, production of eyed ova to sac fry, production of quality feed, fish health management and husbandry should be the responsibility of public undertaking sector (may

7. Marketing and cooperation: Organised marketing and cooperation is one of the most important strategies for the development of successful trout farming in as much as the cost of production is very high but the availability of

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remunerative marketing is not within the reach of individual farmers. As such a very effective linkage both horizontal as well as vertical has to be established between the stake holders.

Brackkan, O. R., G. Lambertsen and J. Andersen, 1971. Influence of different dietary fats on the deposition in liver and muscle of young rainbow trout. Rec. Technol. Res. Horw. Fish.Ind., 5(8).

8. Periodical dissemination of the updated technology needs to be undertaken by organising regular in house and on farm training programme for the appraisal and feedback data of all the stake holders.

Chandrasekaran, G. and S. Rao, 1979. On the growth and survival of rainbow trout reared in stagnant pond at higher water temperature and low dissolved oxygen. Matsya,5: 35-37.

9. The thirteen endemic species identified as candidate species, the breeding technology for some of the species (Tor putitora, Neolisochilus hexagonolepis, Bangana dero) has already been standardised by DCFR, Bhimtal but yet needs to be disseminated in the farmer’s field. However, other species needs to be immediately studied comprehensively for their biological traits in the respective habitats so that they can be brought under hatchery management practices for vertical aquaculture diversification to enhanc the production and location specific sustainability.

References Bergheim, A. 2012. Recent growth trends and challenges in the Norwegian aquaculture industry. Lat. Am. J. Aquat. Res., 40(3): 800-807.

Dhanze, J. R. and R. Dhanze, 1997. Evaluation of different levels of feeding regime in Salmogairdnerii(Richardson) under the subtemperate environment of Himachal Pradesh. J. Natcon., 9(1):31-37. Dhanze, J. R. and R. Dhanze, 2002. Potential and constraints of rainbow trout, Salmogairdnerii (Richardson) farming in Himachal Pradesh in: Coldwater fish genetic resources and their conservation. Natcon.Pub.7: 65-74. Edwards, D. J. 1978.Salmon and trout farming in Norway: pp. XII+195. Farnham, England, Fishing News Books Ltd. Sehgal, K. L. 1974. Trout culture in India, its present status and future scope.J.Inld.Fish. Soc. India, 6:186-193. Stevenson, J. P., 1980. Trout farming manual. Farnham, England, Fishing News Books Ltd.. pp. XI+186.

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Rainbow Trout Farming in India: Status and Prospects N. N. Pandey, S. Ali and A. K. Singh ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal-263136, Distt. Nainital (Uttarakhand)

1. Introduction Rainbow trout is one of the promising cultivable fish species in coldwater and has considerable scope for its expansion. Being a low volume high value commodity, the trout has good potential for domestic consumptions as well as foreign export. In spite of having excellent positive traits, the development and expansion of trout farming has yet to be done on large scale. Trout culture is intensive type of farming which requires more input resources compared to other species for survival and growth. The feasibility of achieving required production naturally depends on a number of factors including seed, feed, health management and environmental consideration. Potential success in trout production requires better governance and significant improvement in the management practices. Rainbow trout is native to the Pacific drainages of North America ranging from Alaska to Mexico. However, it is the world’s most widely introduced fish species which is cultured over 65 countries including India. Trout farming in India is over a century old and there are several species of trout but rainbow trout is a species of choice. Rainbow trout is a low volume high priced fish and relatively easy to culture. This amazingly versatile species can tolerate a wide thermal range of temperate climate (from 0-22˚C) and there are numerous freshwater sources in which they can be grown well. Fish can thrive in water originating from aquifers, springs and streams – as well as in lakes. Trout farming has progressed steadily in last 50 years in India amid different constraints. The total

trout production in the country was about 147 tonnes during 2004-05 which has increased about four-fold in last ten years, and has reached up to 842 tonnes (2016-17). The growth rate of trout production in this duration remained 31.0 percent per annum. Trout ova production has increased from 1.85 million during 2004-05 to 14.00 million during 2016-17. The increase in total production has a significant contribution from the private sector mainly from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Over the years these two north-western Himalayan states remained the main contributor to the rainbow trout production (81.2%), however, Sikkim, a north-eastern state has shown significant increase in trout production in recent years while other states such as Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and states of southern India contribute a meagre production.

2. Historical perspective of trout introduction in India The farming or husbandry of trout has a relatively long history in Europe and North America. In the Indian Sub-continent two main types of trouts viz. brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum)) were transplanted from Europe by British settlers around the beginning of the last century primarily to meet their needs for sport fishing or recreational angling. The transplantation of brown and rainbow trout was attempted independently in the Himalayan and in the non-Himalayan States. In the Himalayan States the brown trout (Salmo trutta fario Linnaeus) was first brought in Kashmir through the private efforts

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of F.J. Mitchell in 1899. These introductions in the hill states could be considered as the formal beginning of Coldwater fisheries or mountain fisheries development in India. For many decades the mere intention remained to develop recreational fisheries to satisfy the needs of anglers for sports. Later on, these species were started being cultured for food and hatcheries were setup for the production of seed. The development of hill fisheries thus started in the selected locations particularly in the Kashmir valley and some parts of the peninsular India. The breeding and culture techniques for the rainbow was standardized and now being practiced with greater success and accuracy.

3. Status of Trout Farming in India The general concept of rainbow trout as a highly expensive fish to cultivate in the farms and as a luxury food beyond the reach of the common man still holds good amongst the fisheries planners. Research and development carried out in India by State and Central organizations during the past three decades have shown appreciable achievements in trout farming practices. Adoption of the techniques that are currently in vague with suitable modifications to suit the prevailing conditions in trout farming of the country has led to achieving very high survival rates in the hatcheries and nurseries as well as the increased production of trout. Development of the some artificial diets based on locally available ingredients resulted in efficient food conversion and enhanced growth. The research in this area has clearly shown that trout farming can be done in this country by achieving high production at moderate cost of production. Presently the bulk of trout production is contributed by the northwestern Himalayan region. In order to popularize trout production in northeastern and central Himalayan region, the Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, (ICAR-DCFR), Bhimtal has made concerted efforts with state fisheries departments for promotion of rainbow trout farming. However, there is ample scope for further enhancement of trout production in Indian Himalayan region through participatory approach. The trout production infrastructure has also

developed steadily in the country in last 30 years and presently around 62 trout farms (under Government sector) with 369 numbers of raceways are spread over seven states in the western, northeastern and peninsular region of the country. A total of 32 trout hatcheries with an estimated eyed ova production capacity of 20 million are present in the country which have been mostly established by the various state governments. These hatcheries or seed production units cater the need of farmers, private entrepreneurs and also supply to the different government agencies for building their stocks. Moreover, an estimated 1300 numbers of trout units in the private sector have been established in the country mostly concentrated in the Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Sikkim.

4. Production from Northwestern Himalayan region In northwestern region of India has progressed in rainbow trout farming due to most suitable climatic condition and topography for trout farming. Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are two important states where rainbow trout farming has progressed on large scale. Since the introduction of rainbow trout in India, Jammu and Kashmir remained the forerunner in trout production. The trout fish farming project with the assistance of European Economic Community (EEC) in the year 1984 at Kokernag in Kashmir, has tremendously helped in developing trout farming in the state. Presently under the state government around 42 trout rearing units have been established in the state, besides 14 hatcheries for seed production which is spread over in three main provinces viz. Jammu, Kashmir and Leh & Laddakh. The majority of trout farms are situated in the Kashmir division. Presently the trout farms are located at Kokernag, Achawal, Tricker, Pahalgam, Verinag, Panzath, Kulsore, Dandapora, Nambal, Jogigund, Tangmarg, Kalantra, Bela, Kanggroosa, Shokbala, Beerwah, Khag, Basantwoode, Bheja, Mammer, Murgund, Kaltari, tangdhar, Kalarose, kulgam, Chawalgam, Tchancer, Gatha, Mugal maidan, Bani, Khachan, Drass, Diskit, Sindhughat, Aripal, Rajpora, Phalni, Laribal, Harwan, Aliyal pora and Zainpora. The state fisheries department has

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consistently worked for the development of trout farming and production enhancement and also established excellent infrastructure for trout growout as well as seed production. DCFR, Bhimtal has also established rainbow trout farming as a means of livelihood in cold desert area of Leh & Ladakh. As a consequence, rainbow trout production over a decade has increased from 130 tonnes (2004-05) to 264 tonnes (2016-17). The trout ova production has also increased from 1.73 million to 8.0 million in last ten years. The trout farming technology has also been extended to the private farmers and entrepreneurs and as a result, over 500 trout farming units have been established up to 2017 which was merely 126 in the year 2010-11. The average production of one pair of trout raceways was recorded as 800 to 1000 kg. At Kokernag trout farm a feed mill of 0.5t/hr capacity has been installed to fulfill the feed requirement of the government farm, as well as private farmers. Himachal Pradesh is one of the leading states in rainbow trout farming and seed production in India. With the assistance of Norwegian Government during 1989-91, trout infrastructure has been developed in the state for rainbow trout production. Introduction of the improved strain of rainbow trout resulted in increased trout production in the state. The state fisheries department own six trout farms and seed production unit in the state. The largest one is located at Patlikuhal in Kullu district. The rainbow trout production from the state has increased from 17 tonnes (2004-05) to 434.43 tonnes (2016-17). Multifold increase in rainbow trout production in the state during the last decade is mainly due to the contribution of the private farmers (raceways-675, trout growers-315) and entrepreneurs. The state fisheries department has also installed three feed mills for the production of different types of feed which caters the need of government and private farmers. Chamba Valley, Kinnaur Valley, Kullu Valley, Lahul Valley, Pabbar Valley and Uhi Valley are potential areas for rainbow trout farming in the state.

5. Production from Northeastern and Central Himalayan region Northeastern Himalayan states such as Sikkim

and Arunachal Pradesh also have trout production infrastructure as well as trout ova production units in the state. Sikkim has considerable water resources suitable for rainbow trout farming, and the state has eight farms with 59 raceways having trout production capacity of 46.0 tonnes. The production of rainbow trout in the state has reached up to 110 tonnes during last eight years with the consistent technical support of DCFR and regular effort of state fisheries department. Although rainbow trout production is low in the state but recently many farmers (249 trout units) and entrepreneur have adopted trout farming and thus contributing about 12% in the total trout production. Presently three trout breeding units are functional and producing trout seed for stocking in various government and private farms. In Sikkim state, integration of rainbow trout farming with cardamom cultivation is an innovative approach for multiple use of water and better production of trout and cardamom at higher altitudes. Trout raceway (RCC) is constructed with an area of 30m2 and nutrient rich drain out water from raceway is used for irrigation of cardamom crop of 0.4 ha. area. There is 30% increasing yield (total yield 200 kg/0.4 ha) of cardamom due to nitrogen rich irrigation. The net profit to the farmers in this integrated trout and cardamom cultivation is Rs. 2,14,000 / 0.4 ha. In the state of Arunachal Pradesh trout broodstock and seed production is being done in two main hatcheries situated at Shergaon of west Kameng and Nuranang in Tawang district. Shergaon has ova production capacity of 50,000. However, rainbow trout farming is yet to reach private farmers in the state. In central Himalayan region, Uttarakhand is one of the promising states where trout farming has good prospects. There are around 100 raceways in the state and farmers of district Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Champawat have started trout farming after the initiative taken by DCFR and state fisheries department.

6. Production from Non Himalayan region The trout culture in western ghat was initiated for sport and recreational fishery. Commercial trout culture is not very bright either for consumers or for farmers. Mr. Wilson successfully developed the

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trout fishery in this region. He surveyed the entire area and finally selected Avalanche stream. He constructed trout hatchery in 1909-10 at Avalanche for the production of trout eggs by using brooders from Mukurti stream. The Fisheries department TN took over the management of hatchery in 1958 and still it is only for ranching in streams not for culture. A trout farm was established in 1941 at Eravicolam followed by another at Rajamallai in the Munnar hills. A trout hatchery is situated exactly in the Rajamallai under the control of TATA Tea Company within the wildlife Sanctuary area. The capacity of this hatchery is 48000 eyed ova for rearing. The performance of this hatchery is better than the Avalanche hatchery.

7. Scope and suggestions for further development In order to achieve the goal of enhancing trout production, it is quite necessary to focus on improving existing technologies or developing new ones for increased and sustained production. Seed availability is the main bottleneck in the trout production. Round the year availability of the trout fingerlings is the need of the trout growers, which require brood banks and seed banks at different geographical locations. The transportation of seed is only possible at eyed ova stage therefore; a feasible technology is required for the live transportation of trout fingerling and brood fish. This is important because most of the fish farmer do not have facility for the incubation of trout eggs. Trout feed is also a second most important constraint in increasing the productivity and profitability of trout farming. At present the cost of trout production is high mainly due to high cost of feed. It is a major factor limiting the development of trout farming among the small and marginal farmers. Therefore, the development of low cost and efficient feed based on locally available ingredients would be helpful to reduce the cost of feed without reducing their efficacy. The existing stock of rainbow trout was imported 2025 years back and is slow growing due to genetic fatigue, which may be replaced by improved strain. Disease plays a key role in sustaining aquaculture. Most of the disease in trout culture belongs to parasite, fungal and bacterial. The main strategy for the health management of trout is required to

reduce the level of risk and accelerate the trout farming. Currently the cemented raceways are the dominant culture system for the trout cultivation. It may provide limited opportunity for expansion as it involves high investment cost. Strategy is necessary to develop the other production system such as cages, earthen raceways and tanks at various level of intensity as practices in many other countries, which would help in achieving national goal. Current trout production and demand suggests that there is high market demand for trout. Research is required to study the market demand and supply with projection for the future and how farmer should target consumer group for the future success of trout industry. Therefore, technologies to produce trout at competitive price adding value and regulation to maintain product quality and sanitary standards acceptable to world market are inevitable. Currently the trout farmers have fragmented production units. Strategy is required to promote for collective production and marketing in pocket areas/cluster to ensure that input transportation and delivery of harvested fish to market at a cheaper price.

References FAO, 2011. Small scale rainbow trout farming. FAO Fisheries and aquaculture technical paper no. 561.ISBN 978-92-5-106819-9. Rome. Jhingran, V.G., Sehgal, K.L., 1978. Coldwater fisheries of India. Inland Fisheries Society of India, Barrackpore, 238 p. Joshi, K.D., 2010. Rainbow trout farming in India: present status and future prospects. In: Mahanta, P.C., Sarma, D. (Eds.), Coldwater Fisheries Management, DCFR, Bhimtal Publication, pp. 43-48. Joshi, K.D., Vass, K.K., Raina, H.S., 2005. Experiments on the rearing of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum) in central Himalayas. Indian J. Fish. 52(3), 331-337. Pandey, N. N., S. Ali, AK Singh 2016. Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) farming in India. Technical compendium, National conference on Hill agriculture in perspective, G. B. Pant University of Ag. & Tech. Pantnagar; pp 341350.

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Pandey, N. N., S. Ali. Rainbow trout farming in India: R & D perspectives. Published by Dr. A. K. Singh, Director, ICAR- DCFR, Bull. No. 23. Pandey,N. N., J. Biju Sam Kamalam, Monika Gupta and A. K. Singh. 2016. Fish and poultry offal based farm made feed for rainbow trout: Participatory field evaluation in Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh. Technical compendium, National conference on Hill agriculture in perspective, G. B. Pant University of Ag. & Tech. Pantnagar; pp 798. Rai, A. K., Gurung,T. B., Basnet, S. R., and Mulmi, R. M., 2008. Present Status and prospect of Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) farming in Nepal. In: T.B. Gurung (eds.) Proceedings of the workshop on “Rainbow trout farming scaling-up strategies in Nepal,” p-25-30. Sehgal, K.L., 1999a. Coldwater fish and fisheries in the Western Ghats, India. In: Petr, T. (Ed.), Fish and fisheries at higher altitudes: Asia, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper No. 385, FAO, Italy, Rome, pp. 103-121.

Singh, A. K, N. N. Pandey and S. Ali. 2017. Current status and strategies of Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Farming in India. International Journal of Aquaculture: 7:23-30. Vass, K. K., 2012. Coldwater Fisheries research in India. In: Sarma, D., Pande, A., Chandra, S. and Gupta, S. K. (Eds) “Silver Jubilee compendium on Coldwater Fisheries”. Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) Bhimtal 263136, Nainital (Uttrakhand), p-13-23. Vass, K. K., Raina, H. S., and Haldar, R. S., 2010. Prospects of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, walbaum culture in mid altitudes of central Himalayas, India J. Inland Fish. Soc. India, 42(1): 1-7. Vass, K.K., 2002. Practical concepts of trout farming-its status and potentials in India. In: Vass, K.K., Raina H.S. (Eds.), Highland Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management, National Research Centre on Coldwater Fisheries (ICAR), Bhimtal, India, pp. 223-241.

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Scope and Potentiality for Development of Coldwater Fisheries in Assam Swapan Kumar Das1, Padma Kanta Hazarika2 and Dhruba Jyoti Sharma3 1

ACS, Director of Fisheries, Assam; 2Technical Manager, Assam Fisheries Development Corporation; 3Fishery Officer, Directorate of Fisheries, Assam

Assam is the gateway to the north eastern part of India with total area of about 78,438 Sq. Km. The state is bestowed with vast water bodies in the form of rivers, beels, ponds, tanks, derelict etc. covering about 5 lakh hectares. Apart from that there is 1,12,200 hac. suitable paddy field for integrated paddy cum fish culture. Fish is an important food item and plays an important role in the economy of sizeable section of the population of Assam. The state, from all water resources, has achieved a fish production level of 306 Million Kg during 2016-17 against nutritional demand 348 Million Kg. The per capita consumption of fish stands 7.3 Kg. So, there is high demand for fish and price is also remunerative. The state is the third largest producer of fish seed in the country with production of 6745 Million fry during 2016-17. However, standard sized quality fish seed in the form of fingerlings at right time is yet to be achieved uniformly throughout the state. Assam is rich in aquatic bio-diversity with 216 identified fish species. Out of the 216 fish species, 38 species belonging to 27 genera under 9 families and 4 orders commonly contributed to commercial fisheries of the six main Coldwater River stretches. Based on studies conducted by CIFRI,NERC in important tributaries of mighty Brahmaputra, six river stretches of Brahmaputra Valley viz., Jiabharali, Manas, Kapili Lohit, Kulsi and Borgung have been identified as important coldwater rivers of the state. Important coldwater sport fishes recorded in the nine rivers were mahseers (Tor putitora, T. progenius, T. mosal), Bokar/ katli Neolissochilus hexagonolepis), snow-trouts (Schizothoraichthys

progastus, S. stoliczkae, Schizothorax richardsonii) and the Indian trout (Raiamas bola). In addition to sport fishes, these rivers harboured a good number of commercially important food fishes like Labeo dero, L. dyocheilus, L. calbasu, Barilius bendelensis, B. barila, B. vagra, B. shacra, Crossocheilus latius latius, Garra annandalei, Chagunius chagunio, Glyptothorax spp., Puntius sarana, Aorichthys aor, Wallago attu, Mastacembelus armatus, Bagarius bagarius, Nangra nangra, Mystus spp. and Amblyceps mangois. In addition, Botia dario, Mystus tengara, M. vittatus, Pseudambassis range, Chanda nama, Badis badis, Nandis nandus, Channa barca and Xenentodon cancila also have considerable ornamental value. There are gangatic river dolphin, turtle, aquatic lizards, frogs, crabs, insects, etc. along with many aquatic vegetation and diverse phytoplankton in vast flood plain wetlands, rivers and streams of Assam. About 150 species have been reported to be of ornamental value. While there is need to focus on the development of fresh water fisheries in the state, but it is also important to diversify our effort towards development of cold water fisheries even though the scope is somewhat limited. Cold water fisheries can be taken up in districts of Sunitpur (Jia Bhoroli and Borgang streams), Lakhimpur (Ranganadi Stream), Barpeta (Beki and Manas stream), Karbi-Anglong and North Cachar Hill (Kapili stream) district. In considering area, our state is the second largest state of the northeastern region of India. It covers about 30% of the geographical area of the region is known for the richness and heterogeneity of its fishery resources including fish germplasm resources. The state is surrounded by the sub-Himalayan

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mountain ranges of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh and the hills of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram on three sides. These hills and mountains give rise to numerous fast flowing streams down the gradient and ultimately joining the Brahmaputra and Barak rivers. The river Brahmaputra alone has 42 important tributaries in the state. From the fisheries point of view, waters having temperatures falling within the tolerance limits of the trout belonging to family Salmonidae (0-200C with an optimum range of 10-120C) are termed as Cold waters. Thus, the upstream stretches of most of these rivers flowing through the hills and foot-hills of the state can be termed as Coldwater streams. The upstream stretches of all the tributaries of Brahmaputra qualify for Coldwater rivers since the water temperature regimes are suitable for coldwater fishes like mahseer and snow trouts during some or most parts of the year. However, very few systematic studies have been made on the ecology and fisheries of these Coldwater River stretches. Ofcourse these have a great potential in generating income in rural areas and in providing food security to the economically underprivileged population of the regions. The cold water fisheries have immense Potential for developing recreational fisheries as well as increasing the state’s fish production. There are seven major coldwater upland streams in Assam Viz- Jiabhoroli (56 km in Sonitpur dist.) Borgang (33 km in Sonitpur), Manas (62.5 km in Barpeta dist.), Kulsi (48.5 km in Kamrup) Subansiri (Lakhimpur 45 km) and Ranganadi and Lohit (55 km in N. Lakhimpur dist.) of (total 300 km). The study of these coldwater streams in Assam was conducted CIFRI,NERC, Guwahati (1996-98) in active association with Department of Fisheries,Assam. The physico-chemical and biological characteristics of these coldwater streams were found suitable for Mahseer fishery. Mighty Mahseer is the most prized fish of the state. Out of the 7 species of Mahseer, 4 species available in Cold water stream of Assam. These are Neolissochilus hexagonolepis, (Bokar, Chocolate, Mahseer), Tor putitor (Golden Mahseer, junga pithia), Tor tor (Pithia) and Tor progenies (Jungha Mahseer). Besides these Mahseer, other commercially important species of Cold water fishes

are- Labeo dero ( Shilgharia). Labeo dyocheilus (Shilgharia), Berelius bendelesis, semiplotus semiplotus, Gara getyla and punctius species. Earlier there was report of availability of trout in coldwater streams of Assam. But now nowhere it is reported. The fisheries of these streams are constituted by 14 species of fish belongs to 9 families. In recent years, the major Mahseer streams of Assam and their anabranches once teeming with thousand of Mahseer have started presenting a depleted picture. Indiscriminate killing of brooder fishes and juveniles, dynamiting and poisoning have adversely affected the cold water fisheries in Assam. Taking advantage of the ascending nature of the fish during breeding season impounding nets / traps, barricades and other contrivances are used for wanton destruction. Maximum damage is done to the mahseer brooders while migrating the up streams or vice versa. The future prospect of coldwater fisheries in Assam is quite optimistic as the coldwater streams are not so polluted as in the river of other states/ countries. Most of the streams show seasonality of behaviour where by the coldwater fishes breed early in the floods feed and grow on the flood plain and with the falling water retreats to the pool’s where they can withstand the severity of low water. In Assam, as the coldwater streams are highly suitable for Mahseer fishes. A mahseer hatchery has been established by DCFR in association with Assam Bhoreli Angling and Conservation association at Nameri to produce Mahseer seeds and subsequently seeds are released to stock the streams. The bank of Subansiri cold water stream is also suitable for the establishment of a Mahseer hatchery. The qualitative improvement of streams by transplanting of farm reared stocking materials may be considered as an active conservational step. In all the coldwater streams have plentiful availability of fry and fingerlings of Mahseer. Apart from the hatchery reared seed, the wild seed may also be collected for stocking materials and rear them for brood stock. Therefore a need to collect the exits juveniles from the selected pockets of the streams and rear on protein rich diet in the farms.

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Conservation of Coldwater Streams

spots for sport fishing.

1. Indiscriminant killing of brood fishes and juveniles should be declared as illegal.

River Manas is also a cold water sport fisheries rescore of the state. The 50 km long stretch of river Manas located within in lower Assam is becoming popular among the anglers.

2. Observation of closed season during breeding period. 3. Barricade of streams should be stopped. 4. Declaration of sanctuaries and strict restriction on fishing in the protected area. 5. Replenishment of stock by artificial propagation along the Mahseer Stream. Constraints such as low productivity of upland waters, comparatively slow growth rate of fish species, low fecundity in fishes and poor landings and marketing facilities need to be addressed for achieving the desired expansion of coldwater fish production. The North Eastern region is having very good opportunities for developing cold water fish based tourism sector. Mahsheer which is a world famous game and sport fish is very much available in the rivers and streams of North East India promises to develop very good angling platform in the different parts of this region. The river Jia bhoroli has become the most famous eco-tourism centre of the state where the “Assam Bhoroli Angling and Conservation Association” organize angling competitions almost every year during the winter season. The upper stretches of river Jiabhoroli from Bhalukpung to Balipara (under Nameri Reserved Forest) in Sonitpur District spanning about 100 km provide excellent

River Kopili is the only established sport fishing centre among the south bank tributaries. The upstream stretches of the river near Umranshu in North Cachar Hills District of Assam is an establishing angling destination. The important sport fisheries in the state are : Tor tor , Tor putitora, Neolssocheielus hexagonolepis etc. Ecotourism has an immense potentiality in Assam. Our state has an incomparable biodiversity and posses huge water bodies which is a positive aspect of eco tourism in the form of white water rafting, canoeing, camping, tracking and ofcourse sport fishery. Angling also among the favourite sports of Assam.The major fishing point in the state is river Brahmaputra besides the river Jia bhoreli,kapili and Manas.Brahmaputra river system is most fascinating,full of joy and life----which leave the adventure loving tourists,anglers and naturalists in utter awe.The jia Bhoreli river is home to the fierce game fish ,the “Golden Mahseer “ or Tiger of the Himalayan rivers. Blue revolution has come in different sector of fisheries of India, but cold water fisheries have been out of the revolution due to non-availability of natural ponds, non availability of quality seed and lack of proper support and extension facilities in the region.

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Indigenous Coldwater Fishes of India Have the Best Nutrient Composition for Meeting Human Nutritional Requirements Debajit Sarma, Annu Sharma and Prakash Sharma ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal-263136, Nainital, Uttarakhnd Email: dsarma_sh@ yahoo.co.in

1. Introduction At the present time, the world is facing the dual problems of nutrition; malnutrition (or nutritional deficiency diseases, NDDs) in one hand and the lifestyle diseases (LDs) on the other. Unlike the global decreasing trend of malnutrition, the cases of LDs, in the global scenario, are increasing year after year in an erratic fashion. Therefore, LDs are more of a concern compared to NDDs. They came into being and continuously mushrooming as a result of the advancement of industrialization, urbanization, economic development and globalization; because, expansion of global food market have availed the energy-dense food with high saturated fat and carbohydrate, and this in combination with a sedentary lifestyle have further bolstered the cause. Commonly seen such diseases, in our society, include obesity, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, stroke, arthritis, sleep disorders, osteoporosis, arteriosclerosis, dementia, cancer, etc. Food and nutrition are the primary causes of these two problems, and they arise at the slightest deviations from the thin line of nutritional requirements. In other words, irregular and inappropriate eating habits are prime factors responsible for LDs and NDDs. The occurrence of nutrition related death could be avoided through proper dietary formulations or inclusion of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats, especially fish, in daily human diet (Hasler, 1998). The concept of healthful or the functional food is

becoming popular in global food scenario because of its positive link with spreading of LDs. As a consequence of this, the evaluation of nutritional and functional quality of food and food ingredients is becoming indispensable. Worldwide, many food components are being taken up for evaluation of nutritional and functional quality. In other words, more and more foods are being taken for nutrient as well as functionality (presence of, if any, bioactive compounds) profiling for including them in functional food category. Some of the commonly available functional foods include oats, flax/linseed, tomatoes, garlic, citrus fruits, cranberry, tea, dairy products, fish, etc.

2. Nutritional significance of fish in human diet Among the long array of the functional foods, fish has a long history of preventing humankind from many chronic LDs of old ages, and it is taken equally by rich and poor people for their inherent functionality and nutritional potential respectively. Fish not only contains long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFAs; eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA and docosahexaenoic acid, DHA), it also is a source of other health promoting bioactive components such as vitamin D, B12 and A, selenium, iodine, iron, zinc, choline, taurine, etc. Because of the presence of these intrinsically balanced desirable nutrients and inherent bio-active component, fish comes to everyone’s plate irrespective of rich or poor, young or old, healthy or unhealthy.

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other. Marine fatty fish contains more lipid and higher levels of n-3 LC-PUFAs than the freshwater counterparts (Ackman, 2002). Fishes, depending on their typical food and feeding habit, they show differences in nutrient compositions (Grigorakis, 2007); therefore, each fish have their unique nutrient makeup and functionality. Based on such unique nutrient composition, consumers can make healthful choices. Further, the degree of functionality of fish helps consumers to decide the preference and price.

Figure 1. Diagrammatic representation of potential of fish in reducing the double burden of malnutrition and life style diseases.

Due to the growing preferences of fish by health conscious people, nutritional and functional information of new fish species are coming into light. As a consequence, more and more indigenous fish species get recruited into the food fish category, and therefore, the per capita consumption of fish is increasing at the global level from 15.7 in 2006 to 17.2 kg/person/year in 2010. The same is projected to reach 18 kg/person/year by 2020 (World Bank, 2013). So far the functionality of the fish is concerned it cannot be replaced with other animal meat (Gogus and Smith, 2010). Even vegetable oil like linseed oil cannot substitute fish oil, although it contains higher levels of α-linolenic acid (ALA), because human cannot convert ALA to EPA and DHA as efficiently as fish does (Burdge and Calder, 2005). Omega-3 rich fish oil products under various commercial brand names are available in drug stores for nutraceutical supplementation. However, eating fish as a whole is beneficial than consuming commercially available concentrated nutraceuticals because essential fatty acids, in whole fish, are retained in diluted form in muscle matrix, and thus, they release slowly in the gastrointestinal tract during digestion (Gormley, 2006). Among fishes too, there are differences in nutrient composition, some are lean while other are fatty; similarly, some have high functionality than

The nutrient profiling of Indian fishes started long back, i.e., before independence; initiated by Saha and Ghosh (1941). Again after three to four decades, some more nutrient information on Indian fishes came to light, authored by Sen et al. (1977), Nair and Gopakumar (1978), Lilabati and Viswanath (1996) and Ghosh and Dua (1997). Recently, Indian council of agricultural research (ICAR) started a nationwide fish nutrient profiling project for bringing compositional information of possibly all Indian fish to public. Under the umbrella of the same project, ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research (ICAR-DCFR) took the responsibility of evaluating the nutrient composition of Indian Himalayan cyprinids (IHCs). As a consequence of this, information on nutrient composition of many IHCs came into public domain (Das et al., 2012; Joshi et al., 2017a,b; Sarma et al., 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015; Mohanty et al., 2014, 2016a, b). Among IHCs, until date mahseers (Tor putitora and Neolissochilus hexagonolepis), hill carps (Labeo dero, L. dyocheilus and L. pangusia) (Das et al., 2012; Sarma et al., 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015; Mohanty et al., 2014; 2016a, b) and snow trouts (Schizothorax spp.) (Joshi et al., 2017a,b) have been evaluated for nutrient composition and functionality. Further, nutrient composition of small indigenous species of Brahmaputra basin from lower Himalayan belt have also been explored (Sarma et al., unpublished data; under review). Among the components of biochemical composition, protein and lipid are nutritionally more important than other; the respective values of protein and lipid are found to fall within the ranges of 16-20 and 2-8 g/100 g of edible parts in coldwater fishes (Joshi et al., 2017a,b; Sarma et al., 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015).

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Among the common edible coldwater food fishes, namely rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), golden mahseer (Tor putitora), snow trout (Schizothorax richardsonii), chocolate mahseer (Neolissochilus hexagonolepis) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio), snow trout followed by chocolate mahseer are the best in term of n-3/n-6 fatty acid ratio Sarma et al. (2011, 2013). Among various species of snow trouts, namely S. curvifrons, S. esocinus, S. labiatus, S. niger, S. plagiostomus, S. progastus and S. richardsonii, S. labiatus is the superior fish with best nutritional attributes (in terms of protein content, leucine, phenylalanine, isoleucine, lysine, threonine, MUFAs, n-3 fatty acids, calcium, phosphorus and zinc, and lowest contents of TAG, and n-6/n-3 ratio) (Joshi et al, 2017a, b). S. richardsonii is the second best with abundant loads of methionine, valine and lysine, and limited content of fat, SAFAs, n-6 fatty acids and n-6/n-3 ratio. Similarly, S. progastus (due to best in arginine, histidine and iron content) and S. esocinus (with lowest cholesterol) respectively are the third and the fourth best.

References Ackman RG (2002). Freshwater fish lipids - an overlooked source of beneficial long chain n-3 fatty acids. European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology, 104:253-254. Burdge GC, Calder PC (2005). Conversion of α-linolenic acid to longer-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in human adults. Reproduction Nutrition Development, 45:581-597. Das P, Sarma D, Bisht HCS, Das P (2012). Nutritional quality of exotic rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and indigenous snow trout (Schizothorax richardsonii) in upland Himalayan region. Indian Journal of Animal Nutrition, 29(2):121-126. Ghosh M, Dua RD (1997). Principal fatty acids of lipid classes from fresh water fish (Callichrous pabda). Journal of Food Lipids, 4:129-135. Gogus U, Smith C (2010). N-3 omega fatty acids: a review of current knowledge. International Journal of Food Science and Technology, 45:417-436. Gormley TR (2006). Fish as a functional food. Food Science and Technology, 20:25-28. Grigorakis K (2007). Compositional and organoleptic quality of farmed and wild gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) and sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and factors affecting it: a review. Aquaculture, 272:55-75.

Figure 2. Summary of the nutrient contents of seven species of snow trout (Schizothorax spp.). Source Joshi, 2017 (thesis, under review)

3. Conclusion Overall, all coldwater fishes were good in one way or the other in their nutrient load and dietary nutrient contribution potential although they have slightest interspecies differences. Therefore, they all are potent sources of vital nutrients and bioactive compounds, what modern consumers are seek in present day food market.

Hasler CM (1998). Functional foods: their role in disease prevention and health promotion. Food Technology, 52:63-70. Lilabati H, Viswanath W (1996). Nutritional quality of freshwater catfish (Wallago attu) available in Manipur, India. Food Chemistry, 57:197-199. Joshi V, Akhtar MS, Sharma P, Kushwaha SS, Baruah D, Alexander C, Pande V, Sarma D (2017). Himalayan fish manifest higher potential of quality nutrients for human health. Journal of Aquatic Food Product Technology, DOI: 10.1080/10498850.2017.1340916. Joshi V, Akhtar MS, Sharma P, Baruah D, Das P, Alexander C, Pande V, Sarma D (2017). Protein

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and amino acid composition of Indian Himalayan snow trout and their dietary significance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1080/10498850.2017.1340916. Mohanty B, Mahanty A, Ganguly S, Sankar TV, Chakraborty K, Rangasamy A, Paul B, Sarma D, Mathew S, Asha KK, Behera B, AftabuddinMd, Debnath D, Vijayagopal P, Sridhar N, Akhtar MS, Sahi N,Mitra T, Banerjee S, Paria P, Das D, Das P, Vijayan KK, Laxmanan PT, Sharma AP (2014). Amino acid compositions of 27 food fishes and their importance in clinical nutrition. Journal of Amino Acids, 1-7. Mohanty BP, Sankar TV, Ganguly S, Mahanty A, Anandan R, Chakraborty K, Paul BN, Sarma D, Dayal JS, Mathew S, Asha KK, Mitra T, Karunakaran D, Chanda S, Shahi N, Das P, Das P, Akhtar MS, Vijayagopal P, Sridhar N (2016a). Micronutrient composition of 35 food fishes from India and their significance in human nutrition. Biological Trace Element Research, 1-11. Mohanty BP, Ganguly S, Mahanty A, Sankar TV, Anandan R, Chakraborty K, Paul BN, Sarma D, SyamaDayal J, Venkateshwarlu G, Mathew S, Asha KK, Karunakaran D, Mitra T, Chanda S, Shahi N, Das P, Das P, Akhtar MS, Vijayagopal P, Sridhar N (2016b). DHA and EPA content and fatty acid profile of 39 food fishes from India. Hindawi Publishing Corporation, Bio Med Research International, 14 pages.

Saha KC, Ghosh NC (1941). Nutritional investigations of fish. Annals of Biochemistry, 1:139-162. Sarma D, Tiwari T, Das P, Jha GN (2011). Proximate and mineral composition of indigenous hill stream fishes of Uttarakhand. Indian Journal of Animal Nutrition, 28:203-206. Sarma D, Akhtar MS, Das P, Das P, Shahi N, Yengkokpam S, Debnath D, Ciji A, Mahanta PC (2013). Nutritional quality in terms of amino acid and fatty acid of five coldwater fish species: implications to human health. National Academy Science Letters, 36:385-391. Sarma D, Akhtar MS, Das P, Das P, Gadiya G, Shahi N, Ciji A (2014). Proximate and mineral composition of some selected coldwater fishes of upland Himalaya. Nutrition & Food Science, 44:554-561. Sarma D, Das P, Das P, Sanwa S, Akhtar MS (2015). Nutritional Composition of Golden Mahseer (Tor putitora) in Coldwater Himalayan Region of India. SKUAST Journal of Research 17(1):2328. Sen PC, Ghosh A, Dutta J (1977). Lipid composition of parshey roe (Mugil parsia). Journal of Indian Chemical Society, 74:470-473. World Bank (2013). Fish to 2030: Prospects for fisheries and aquaculture. World Bank Report 83177-GLB. Washington DC.

Nair KGR, Gopakumar K (1978). Fatty acid compositions of 15 species of fish from tropical waters. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 43:1162-1164.

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An Overview on Pathogen Interactions in Fish Amit Pande ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal-263136, Nainital (Uttarakhand)

Fish inhabit water bodies and live in a unique environment that can be marine, brackish water, fresh water or cold-water. Water, the home for several other entities- like bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites is a complex environment where fish needs to survive. These microbes may live as symbionts, commensals or opportunists. Opportunists are commensals that may lead to disease under favourable conditions. There are a number of aquatic organisms that can lead to serious disease conditions in fish. These agents or pathogens cause acute and chronic diseases that can be highly infectious and fatal. Basically, a disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism associated with specific signs. It may be responsible for pain, dysfunction, and distress that may finally lead to death. Thus there exists a deep relationship between a host and a pathogen influenced by its environment. The situation is similar to war where an invader i.e. pathogen tries to get entry into a host whereas the host attempts to resists this condition to overcome this attack. The survival of either depends on the situationwho wins that depends on the ability of one to oust the other. Fish pathogens can be responsible for infectious as well as invasive diseases. Infectious diseases are caused by viruses, bacteria and fungi while parasites are responsible for invasive diseases. There is a wide range of viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites that are pathogenic to fish which break physical barrier to enter fish body. Fish skin a major barrier, is protected by a layer of mucus that has anti-microbial peptides which prevent the entry of pathogens. Other than skin, pathogens can also enter through mouth, gills, or wounds on skin leading to disease and finally death. Disease results due to interaction between pathogen, environment and host. Outcome of host-pathogen interaction in an environment leads to damage of host tissue, organ and system that can be transmitted from one fish

to another. Moreover, a pathogen can lead to acute or chronic infection while the ability of pathogen to cause a disease depends on pathogenicity and virulence. Host-pathogen interaction may lead to commensalism, colonization, persistence, infection and disease. This kind of interaction may also result in mutualism, opportunism, and infestation besides carrier state. It is intriguing to understand what conditions allow a pathogen to invade and how the invasion of a pathogen is blocked. Fish can have an association with a microorganism in which the microorganism is benefitted but the fish is neither helped nor harmed. In this sort of association, usually called commensalism, no injury is inflicted to either participant. This condition permits a microorganism to live on the external or internal surfaces of the body without causing disease. Commensals are usually harmless and constitute the normal micro-flora. Such microbes can establish themselves in oral cavity, intestines, as well as skin without causing any damage to the host. However, under prolonged stress these organisms may lead to serious disease in fish. In another type of association with microbes, no overt clinical or pathological conditions are observed in fish under normal conditions but the microbes can become highly invasive. Under this condition, known as opportunism, the defence mechanism of a fish are disturbed or it is said to be in immuno-compromised state. As opportunist organisms are well adapted for survival on other tissue surfaces of the same animal, their control and clearance poses a whole spectrum of unique problems. Most important fish microbe interaction is invasion of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, rickettsia, or viruses inside the body resulting in pathology, a characteristic feature of a disease. Infringement of normal barriers of the skin, as

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well as mucous membranes permits the entry of microbes and their proliferation in deeper tissues leading to their abnormal changes or pathology. Such organisms may be transmitted from one animal to another. Moreover, there may be a situation when an invading organism is retained within the body of a host. Such microbes escape the immune response by virtue of which they are recognised as self by the defence system of fish. Such animals or carriers may not show any signs of disease associated with a pathogen but they are capable of transmitting the disease as observed in case of infectious pancreatic necrosis and infectious hematopoietic necrosis. The ability of an organism to cause disease or pathogenesis is an important event in host microbe interaction. It includes a series of events that lead to a diseased state. Pathogenesis, includes origin and development of disease which may be acute, chronic or recurrent. The sequential steps involved in pathogenesis of microorganisms involves attachment of the pathogen at the portal of entry, local replication, spread to target organs and sites from where they can be shed. In fish the portals of implantation are the mouth, gills, eyes, skin, and fin bases as shown in Fig.-1.

of the host. Some examples of acute infection in fish are infectious pancreatic necrosis, infectious hematopoietic necrosis, viral haemorrhagic septicaemia, spring viremia of carp, columnaris and vibrosis. Symptoms of acute infection may include increased respiration, loss of appetite, lethargy, skin haemorrhages and death.

Fig. 2: Acute infections

Alternatively, a pathogen may establish itself within the host by virtue of dodging the defence system of the host. Such infections that are not removed by the immune system may continue to cause health problems for several months or even years are said to be chronic (Fig. 3). Infections due to certain viruses, bacteria and fungi are responsible for chronic infection.

Fig. 3: Chronic infection Fig. 1: Portals of implantation of pathogens

Broadly speaking, host microbe interactions may result in either acute or chronic infections. Acute infections are responsible for the rapid multiplication of pathogens within a host, followed by speedy resolution and elimination of the pathogens which is also sometimes called “clearing”. (Fig. 2). Such infections result due to inability of pathogens to bypass the innate immune defence

Parasitic infestation too constitutes a vital host pathogen interaction. Parasites may be responsible for direct losses due to mortality. They can very well affect fish growth, behaviour, resistance to other stressing factors and susceptibility to predation. Parasitic infections are known to have serious consequences in fish produce thus resulting in reduced marketability. Amphizoic amoebae mostly invade skin and gills but in heavy infections eyes, buccal epithelium and tongue are also affected.

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The pathogen results in heavy damage to gill and skin tissues which results in impairment of osmotic balance. Besides primary effect of the parasite, secondary bacterial infections may also be associated. Initially, protozoan infection of gills is similar. It is characterised by necrosis of epithelial cells, hypertrophy and hyperplasia of cells in contact with protozoan besides fusion of secondary lamellae. Desquamation of epithelium, local disruption of blood circulation and progressive changes can vividly indicate inflammation that results in reduction of gill respiratory surface area. The most significant factor for any kind of host pathogen interaction is its environment. There are several factors that affect the environment of fish which have been discussed at length elsewhere. Among them, temperature is one of the crucial factor that influences the balance between fish and its environment. Optimal immune response of a particular fish species is obtained at its normal summer temperature while sudden changes are known to affect the immune system of the fish. Acquired immune system appears to be more temperature sensitive than the innate immune system as helper T cells and cytotoxic T cell activity is down-regulated at low temperatures leading to impaired antibody production and cytotoxic T cell response. During acclimation period, components of the innate immune response, including neutrophils macrophages, NK cells, and the alternative complement pathway are known to be up-regulated. At lower temperatures is has been observed that the avidity of C-reactive protein to pathogens and affinity to antibodies to a T-dependent antigen is enhanced that leads to increased phagocytosis through opsonisation. However, certain phases of the specific immune response may be sensitive to low temperature. VHS and spring viremia of carp are known to occur when temperature changes occur in the spring and autumn. Lowering of water temperature also enables oomycetes like Saprolegnia to establish infection. Success of a pathogen depends on the fact how well it evades the immune response. Once the pathogen gains entry into fish, it encounters immune defence mechanism of the host. This enables the host to recognise and either contain or kill the pathogen.

Pathogens have developed strategies to evade the immune system in order to win the battle over their hosts. Viruses and bacteria may adopt several strategies for the evasion of host’s immune response. Viruses may secrete modulators or toxins that mimic ligands or receptors whereas bacteria possess toxins and proteins. Both bacteria and viruses possess different modulators on the surface of pathogens. Complement inhibitors, coagulations regulators, immune receptors and adhesion molecules are present in viruses while in bacteria, lipid A of LPS, carbohydrates like capsules, OMPs, adhesion and invasins have been reported. Viral antigenic hyper-variability, killing of cells or phagocytes can be achieved by means of error prone replicases and escaping antibody recognition. In bacteria antigenic hyper variability may lead to variation in many surface structures like pili, OMP, LPS and strain to strain variation. Viruses are known to infect and kill immune cells. They inhibit CTL/NK pathways and alter immune signalling as well as effector functions. In bacteria, expression of super-antigens is one strategy besides avoiding lysosomal fusion, blocking of inflammatory pathway by means of effectors and replication within the overrun immune cells. Both bacteria and viruses block acquired immunity. Viruses are known to downregulate MHC I or II, block antigen presentation and prevent induction of immune response genes. Antigen presentation is also blocked by bacteria by interfering with modulation of MHC II biosynthesis, intracellular trafficking, cell surface expression and MHC II processing. Bacteria can also interfere with MHC class I processing and presentation. Both viruses and bacteria also inhibit cytokines and chemokines, modulate apoptosis by either inhibiting or accelerating cell death. Viruses can block TLR signalling and recognition while bacteria alter the function of TLRs to prevent their recognition, or inject effector molecules to inhibit downstream signalling. Besides this, both viruses and bacteria are capable of blocking antimicrobial molecules and intrinsic pathways. Pathogenic oomycetes too have evolved mechanisms to escape fish immune response. In Saprolegnia infected fish, there is epidermal destruction and recruitment of macrophages. The

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phagocytic action of macrophages is made futile by the spores which are comparatively bigger a possible way S. parasitica has evolved to escape the fish’s innate immunity. Downregulation of the class I major histocompatibility (MHC) II receptor and its chaperone is another way of overcoming the host response. There is an upregulation of genes encoding inducible cyclooxygenase (COX-2), interleukin-1b (IL-1b) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFa). Downregulation of the MHC II receptor and the invariant chain has a role in immunosuppression during infection as MHC II receptor is critical for the recognition of exogenous antigens including S. parasitica. Arachidonic acid produced by S. parasitica also down regulates the macrophage activity in fish. S. parasitica may also evade the immune response by secreting protease inhibitors that inhibit protease activity of the host. Moreover, S. parasitica also appears to have genes that encode its own resource of proteolytic enzymes. These are known to upregulate transcription encoding a trypsin protease. The inability of host macrophages to phagocytose Achlya, might limit the host response, thereby providing increased susceptibility to these pathogens. In addition, low water temperature (28oC) dramatically reduces class II MHC expression in leukocytes, which explains the increased frequency of infection following dramatic decreases in water temperature. It has been proposed that suppression of rainbow trout class II MHC genes by S. parasitica could facilitate immune evasion following a return to warmer water temperatures. Macrophages use free-radical production as a pathogen-attack system. In addition to oxygen-radical production generated by the respiratory burst, macrophages produce nitrogen radicals through inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). Reactive intermediates produced by iNOS are important in the response to invading pathogens in mammals; however, the gene encoding iNOS is not up-regulated in the presence of Achlya. Although nitric oxide production is a potential mechanism by which the fish could attack the oomycete, the lack of iNOS activity suggests that Achlya manipulates the molecular defence mechanisms in fish. The genome-wide transcriptional response of fish to saprolegniosis suggests that genes encoding complement proteins

and other acute-phase proteins are significantly overexpressed in Saprolegnia-infected salmon which might reflect activation of the classical complement pathway in infected fish. Moreover, many of the genes observed in Saprolegniainfected fish are known to be associated with innate immunity and not adaptive immunity. Pythium insidiosum, an oomycete responsible for pythiosis, appears to trigger a Th2 response in the host which indicates that the pathogen has developed an evolutionary strategy to conceal important antigens from the host immune system, enabling the pathogen to avoid phagocytosis by host macrophages. To sum up, recent molecular research suggests that the animal pathogenic oomycetes might be capable of manipulating and avoiding the host immune defenses responses because by avoiding macrophage phagocytosis, suppression of class II MHC gene expression, formation of reactive nitrogen species and trigger a Th2 response. In a nut shell, pathogenic aquatic fungi, overcome the host response by downregulation of the class I major histocompatibility (MHC) II receptor, its chaperone and the invariant chain while there is an upregulation of genes encoding inducible cyclo-oxygenase (COX-2), interleukin-1b(IL-1b) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFa). Downregulation of the MHC II receptor and the invariant chain points out its role in immunosuppression during infection as, MHC II receptor is critical for the recognition of exogenous antigens including S. parasitica. Parasites usually cause chronic diseases the onset of which may or may not be acute. Parasites have the ability to subvert the immune response. Protozoan parasites have developed mechanisms based on quick mutational or adaptive changes like variation in their surface thereby altering the antigenic coat. Parasites are known to develop in immune-privileged host tissue like brain, eyes and gonads where the host’s immune barrier prevents immune response. Host’s immune response results in isolation and encapsulation of the parasites without destroying them. Parasites may overcome the immune system by means of intracellular disguise for example microsporidians, coccidian and some myxosporidians. Parasites usually migrate to that part of the host’s system which is separated from the immune system or is not strong

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enough to overcome them. Parasites usually exploit the down regulation of immune response for their benefit. They may also possess antigen-based strategies like mimicking the antigens whereas the anti-immune mechanisms allow parasites to resist innate humoral factors. Parasites may also supress fish immune system by reducing proliferative capacity of lymphocytes or phagocytic activity of the macrophages or by triggering apoptosis of host’s leukocytes. Parasites also secrete or excrete substances that may modulate secretion of host immune factors like cytokines, for their benefits. As parasites have an ability to replicate faster than the ability of the host’s to mount an immune response, they always have a cutting edge.

Thus host pathogen interaction is a complex set of events in which the pathogen tries to evade the host’s defence system for its survival. On the other hand the host does whatever is possible to overpower the pathogen. It is intriguing to understand the biology that leads to infection and the events triggered in fish to circumvent it. Questions like what are the homeostatic regulatory mechanisms that allow a commensal to alter the homeostasis? Therefore an understanding on the mechanism of these interactions is quite important for devising preventive and curative methods. For instance, insights into the defence mechanism of fish and mucosal immunity in particular, could unravel a plethora of information to assist the targeting of mucosal immune system for rational design of vaccines and therapeutics in future.

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ICAR-DCFR Committees Core Committee

Technical Committee

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Dr. Debajit Sarma, Principal Scientist Dr. Amit Pande, National Fellow Dr. Nityanand Pandey, Principal Scientist Dr. Prem Kumar, Principal Scientist Shri R. S. Negi, AO Shri B. C. Pandey, AF&AO

Dr. Debajit Sarma, Principal Scientist Dr. N.N. Pandey, Principal Scientist Dr. Deepjyoti Baruah, Senior Scientist Dr. S. Ali, Scientist Dr. M.S. Akhtar, Scientist Dr. Biju Sam Kamalam J., Scientist

Transport & Accommodation Committee

Hall Arrangement Committee

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Dr. Prem Kumar, Principal Scientist Shri S. K. Mallik, Scientist Shri Tandel Ritesh kumar Shantilal, Scientist Shri Amit Kumar Jashi, Sr. Technical Officer Sh. Baldev Singh, Sr. Technical Officer Sh. Santosh Kumar, Technical Officer Sh. Ankesh Kumar Sinha, Assistant

Dr. Dimpal Thakuria, Scientist Dr. R.S. Haldar, Asst. Chief Tech. Officer Dr. Raghavendra Singh, Scientist Shri Siva, C., Scientist Shri Susheela Tewari, PS Sh. Amit Kumar Saxena, Sr. Tech. Assistant

Registration Committee

Exhibition & Poster Committee

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Dr. Deepjyoti Baruah, Senior Scientist Dr. Neetu Shahi, Scientist Dr. (Mrs.) Ciji Alexander, Scientist Shri Raja Adil Hussain Bhat, Scientist Dr. Khangembam Victoria Chanu, Scientist Shri Harish Ram, AAO

Dr. N. N. Pandey, Principal Scientist Dr. Suresh Chandra, Senior Scientist Shri Abhay Kumar Giri, Scientist Shri Kishor Kunal, Scientist Dr. R. S. Haldar, ACTO Sh. Partha Das, Sr. Technician

Food Committee

TA Committee

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Dr. R. S. Patiyal, Senior Scientist Shri Rajesh M., Scientist Dr. Prakash Sharma, Scientist Dr. Pavaiz A. Ganii, Scientist Smt. Susheela Tewari, PS Sh. J. C. Bhandari, Assistant Sh. Hansa Singh Bhandari, LDC

Sh. R. S. Negi, Administrative Officer Sh. B. C. Pandey, Asst. Fin. & Acc. Officer Smt. Khilawati Rawat, Asst. Admin. Officer Shri P.C.Tiwary, Assisstant Sh. J. C. Bhandari, Assistant Shri Munni Bhakt, UDC

Photography Committee

Cultural Program Committee

1. 2. 3. 4.

1. Dr. Debajit Sarma, Principal Scientist 2. Sh. Pratap Singh, UDC 3. Sh. Amit Kumar Saxena, Sr. Tech. Assistant

Dr. S. G. S. Zaidi, Senior Scientist Sh. Amit Kumar Saxena, Sr. Tech. Assistant Sh. Gopal Ch. Arya, Sr. Technical Assistant Sh. R. K. Arya, Technical Assistant

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